. Radio-activity : an elementary treatise from the standpoint of the disintegration theory . s to which the term induction was firstapplied are now admitted to be capable of a direct explanation,and the process, in the sense of the communication of to an inactive molecule, has never been shown to takeplace. Even if it did, it would merely constitute an additionalfact to be explained without itself aiding in the explanation ofany of those already known. 90 RA I) 10-A CTIVIT Y. Once, however, the possibility of an element undergoingchange is admitted, the varied phenomena of radi
. Radio-activity : an elementary treatise from the standpoint of the disintegration theory . s to which the term induction was firstapplied are now admitted to be capable of a direct explanation,and the process, in the sense of the communication of to an inactive molecule, has never been shown to takeplace. Even if it did, it would merely constitute an additionalfact to be explained without itself aiding in the explanation ofany of those already known. 90 RA I) 10-A CTIVIT Y. Once, however, the possibility of an element undergoingchange is admitted, the varied phenomena of radio-activity canbe explained from a consistent point of view without furtherdifficulty. A quantitative study of the rate of recovery of the activityof thorium and the rate of decay of the activity ofthorium X (Rutherford and Soddy, Phil. Mag, 1902, VI., 4,p. 378) revealed a simple connection between the two pro-cesses. Fig. 25 represents the curves obtained in which theradio-activity is plotted on the vertical and the time in dayson the horizontal axis. Curve I. represents the decay of 120. 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22Time in Days. Fig. 25. activity of thorium X, the initial activity being representedas 100, and curve II. the recovery of activity of thoriumto a constant maximum value, represented also as the first day the effects are abnormal, the activityof the thorium X increasing slightly before commencingto diminish, while that of the thorium at first slightlydiminishes and then proceeds to increase in a regular initial irregularities will be examined later. For the URANIUM X AND THORIUM X. 91 present they may be neglected, and the subsequent regularchanges be considered, without involving any serious error. Itwill be noticed that the recovery curve, if produced backwards,cuts the vertical axis at about 25 per cent., and this can beshown to be due to the thorium possessing a constant non-separable radio-activity specific to the element itself. In Fig. 26the
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