portion to the amount of the metal contained, all inactive material acting as inert bodies and absorbing the radiation.
Is Atomic Radio-activity a general Phenomenon?
As I have said above, I made experiments to discover whether substances other than compounds of uranium and thorium were radio-active. I undertook this research with the idea that it was scarcely probable that radio-activity, considered as an atomic property, should belong to a certain kind of matter to the exclusion of all other. The determinations I made permit me to say that, for chemical elements actually considered as such, including the rarest and most hypothetical, the compounds I investigated were always at least l00 times less active in my apparatus than metallic uranium.
The following is a summary of the substances experimented upon, either as the element or in combination:—
1. All the metals or non-metals easily procurable, and some, more rare, pure products obtained from the collection of M. Etard, at the Ecole de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris.
2. The following rare bodies:—Gallium, germanium, neodymium, praseodymium, niobium, scandium, gadolinium, erbium, samarium, and rubidium (specimens lent by M. Demarçay), yttrium, ytterbium (lent by M. Urbain).
3. A large number of rocks and minerals.
Within the limits of sensitiveness of any apparatus, I found no simple substance, other than uranium and thorium, possessing atomic radio-activity. It will be suitable to add a few words here concerning phosphorus. White moist phosphorus, placed between the plates of the condenser, causes the air between the plates to conduct. However, I do not consider this body radio-active in the same manner as thorium and uranium. For, under these conditions, phosphorus becomes oxidised and emits luminous rays, whilst uranium and thorium compounds are radio-active without showing any chemical change which can be detected by any known means. Further, phosphorus is not active in the red variety, nor in a state of combination.
In a recent work, M. Bloch has demonstrated that phosphorus, undergoing oxidation in air, gives rise to slightly motile ions, which make the air conduct, and cause condensation of aqueous vapour.
Uranium and thorium are elements which possess the highest atomic weights (240 and 232); they occur frequently in the same minerals.
