SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 16, 18 July 1903, Page 12

SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY.

[BT 6AGIITARIUS.] "ONE GOD, ONE LAW, ONE ELEMENT." The poet almost invariably anticipates the philosopher and physicist, and Ten< nyson's phrase has now apparently the endorsement of such leaders in science a» Professors Crookes, Lodge, and Curie. In public utterances they have £racticallv endorsed the theory lately developed sa skilfully by ArAenius, and in the light that the qualities of radium have throvrp on physics are inclined to reduce all elements to one, and all forces to one form, which in the absence oi a better name, may „ be called electrical. The new theory is not subversive of the atomic, but may be described as ultra-atomic, The atom is not abandoned, but a new conception of its nature , supplants thtr old. - -"It is easy," writes 'the London correspondent of th© New York Sun, "to define this great revolution of science ia scarcely more than a sentence. To comprehend it, however, is almost as far beyond the power of the human miud a» the ideal of eternity or, infinity. "The old theory that atoms and elements consist of indvisible unite of matter has been definitely discarded, and instead! it now appears that each atom is a whoto stellar system of infinitely smaller, but absolutely identical, units, all in orbital motion. The hydrogen atom consists ot seven hundred such atoms* or ions. Th« nature or identity of each substance depends upon the number of such ions contained in each atom. Thus 11,200 ipns in each atom produce what is known as oxygen, and 137,200 of the same ions, if combined in a single atom, would yield' gold. "Professor Lodge and his associates be lieve that matter is not stable in it» atoms, as was heretofore supposed. Thus." water may bs separated in oxygen and hydrogen, but it was never before supposed that atoms themselves were capable of disintegration. Professor. Curie, m experiments at the Royal Institution, showed that radium, spontaneously and continually disengaged heat and gave off an emanation similar to itself in constant and even violent streams of radiations Professor Lodge surmises that the pro cess of disintegration of atoms may constitute the evolution of chemical elements "The whole theory is really an astronomical one. Chemistry has, in fact, become the astronomy of the infinitesimal. American scientists have been following up the English professors in the study of radium, finding it present in water in America. The developments suggest the practical value of radio-activity/ and it ia stated as already certain that radioactivity will take the place of X rays in photography." In regard to the latter remark, we have long since suggested that the active photographic radiatiojjq are, strictly speaking, not those of; "light" as recognised by the organs of vision, but of the long-unknown and absolutely imperceptible rays continually emanating from the sun in association with rays of light and heat. Thjs third; quality, actinism, is now well recognised, and though, like heat, associated wjtb. light, should Hot be confounded, with it. THE INCREDULITY OF SCIENTISTS The contempt in which a large section of scientific men hold facts, 'however well established, which they are unable to classify and label, is a hindrance to the prognas of. accurate knowledge, The proverbial "old woman" knows and acts upon much traditional lote which, tho scientist despises, but which widening knowledge must yet compel him to accept. Most successful quacks trade on. facto of this kind, as yet obscurely understood, but which they are shrewd enough to recognise. In a medical book published more than a quarter of a century ago there is an interesting exvract from the Sanitary Record, which, illustrates this point: — "A curious old custom still lingers in, some of the more secluded^ parts of the country of placing a patient suffering from smallpox in a bed with red hangings. It would be interesting to know the origin of this custom, and how long it has been in vogue. The tradition thati red is good for smallpox isiat least five-and-a-half centuries old, for we Tead that John, one of the sons of Edward 11., was treated for the disease by being put ijito a bed surrounded by red hangings, covered with red blankets and a red counterpane, his throat being gargled with red mulberry wine, and the ted juice of pomegranates being given him to suck. This was tlfe boasted prescription of John of Gaddesden, who took no small credit to himself for bringing his royal patient safely through, tie di*. ease." In the light of present-day science, John of Gaddesden is seen to be entitled to full credit for bis judicious treatment, though it has waited long for recognition. Even though we may smila at the misapprehension which prescribed red fluids for internal application, the modern practitioner if he went beyond; pure water could scarcely improve on tho '•mulberry wine" and tha "juice of pomegranates." This may be an extreme example, but we find popular observation! reduced to practice — truly scientific, even though empirjo-^anticipating professional knowledge by six centuries. It was reserved for the dawn of the twentieth century for scientists to acknowledge that after all what they had derided as superstition, and banished to "the more secluded parts of the country" was an actual tru& — that red light is one of the most beneficent agencies in the treatment o? smallpox, mitigating its severity and preventing after-disfigurement. COMETS' TAILS. "Comets and their Tails and th« Gegenscheitt* Light " is ttie title of a newbook by Mr. Frederick G. Shaw, F.G.S. The author revives an old theory, which crops up from time to time, that, in his own words, the tails of comets are due to the passage of the solar rays " through a gaseous atmospher* surrounding the nucleus of a comet, and thus rendered more vigorous and more capable of being reflected from the meteoric bodies, dust, etc., existing or moving through space or from the sun's atmosphere, if such a matter 'exists, in the vicinity of the comet." The theory at first sight is attractive. The puzzling phenomenon of a tail hundreds of millions of miles in length being whisked suddenly in a position diametrically opposite to that formerly occupied is more like the change of direction of a beam of light made visible in an atmosphere of motes than the actual removal of substance to a new position, and the fact that the tail is usually turned from the sun supports the view. But the optical difficulties attached to the theory have never been ovei> come, and there are also abnormal cometary phenomena that hav,e so far refused to fall into line. We are, therefore, not surprised to read in Knowledge that " the author does not appear to have made out a strong case." Miss Agnes M. Clerke, the distinguished English astronomer, has been elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, an honour in which she ia associated with Lady Huggins, wife ofi the President of the Royal Society.

The Victorian coal miners on strike aw fighters to the backbone (says the Bri». bane Courier). In order to supplement the scanty food supply of the strikers and their families, some of the men have gone rabbit-trapping, and others ar« catching fish with three fully equipped i fishing boat*.