RADIUM. LECTURE BY DR. HOME.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14011, 16 September 1909, Page 3

RADIUM. LECTURE BY DR. HOME.

Radium, the comparative recent discovery of which has stirred the scientific world, formed the subject of an interestingly instructive address gi\en last ni^bt in St. Mary's Hall by Dr. Home, under thr auspices of the Church of England Men's Societj. The subject is one which has more than ordinary interest locally, from the fact that a Taranaki boy in the person of l'rofeasor Ernest Rutherford (whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Rutherford, reside at Pungarehu), has been very largely identified with the important s-eientific development of radium. It was his researches in this direction that practically gained for Professor Rutherford last year the Nobel Prize, the highest honour in the scientific .\orld. At the outset Dr. Home said he intended his so-called lecture to be a "di&r-ursory talk." Firstly he traced l he development of scientific research .10111 its. bc^iuninc with the mysterious rays observed by the German scientist it on turn and by him called "X-rays." Further investigations were made by \ arious scientists, particularly Madame Curie, who Micereded in isolating r.i'IIIIIII, and tho most notable work had '>c<'ii done later still by Professor Rutherford. The fundamental principle of radium was that it continued Id throw off energy without sensible diminution <f bulk or vitality. They woro given n great shock when Professor Rutherford brought forward hit, theory of tho divisibility of the atom, hitherto considered the irreducible minimum of material analybis. Ho nrrmintpd for tho enormous activity of end i urn by postulating the oxi&tem-o within the atom of an almost intinit - number of still more minute corpuscles, each in itself 1 complete sort of world, revolving at an enormous rate round a common centre, as the planets revolve round tho sun, the whole system of corpuscles cr::stituting the atom of radium. This was the New Zealander'n great contribution to science, upon which' more than anything else the Nobel science prize was awarded him. His investigations had placed him in the lead of scientists engaged on this problem, the comparative solution of which would most likely revolutionise scientific conceptions of the constitution of the universe. Dr. ,Home showed how the Professor would account for the vast heat of the sun »v the existence in that body of great stores of radium. He mentioned incidentally that Professor Rutherford whs inclined to believe that lead w»k .the form radium would take if it did ultimately cease to give out its emanations, which- were supposed to be due to the impact of the corpuscles one upon another. The use of black board diagrams by the lecturer gave the lay mind an insight into associated subjects such as spectral analysis, the theory of elements and the use of and effect of the X-rays. Speaking -as to the medical application of radium, he said that it was found that certain emanations from the element and its compounds destroyed protoplasm, ''the essence of life, and this was the reason it was so useful and yet so dangerous in the treatment of such disease as cancer. The problem which medical scientists had to solve was how to apply the rays to the cancer cells (which in their earlier stages had slightly lower vitality than the healthy flesh cells) so as to destroy them, and yet to avoid damaging bef yond easy repair the healthy cells of the undiseased flesh.

Upon tbe motion of Messrs. H. E. Fookes' and C. E. Baker, T>i. Home was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. for his lecture. ' r