that the radio-elements possess the property of absorbing them. Recent experiments (section 279) have shown that there is present at the surface of the earth a very penetrating type of rays, similar to the γ rays of radium. Even if it were supposed that the radio-elements possessed the power of absorbing this radiation, the energy of the rays is far too minute to account even for the energy radiated from an element of small activity like uranium. In addition, all the evidence so far obtained points to the conclusion that the radio-active bodies do not absorb the type of rays they emit to any greater extent than would be expected from their density. It has been shown (section 86) that this is true in the case of uranium. Even if it were supposed that the radio-elements possess the property of absorbing the energy of some unknown type of radiation, which is able to pass through ordinary matter with little absorption, there still remains the fundamental difficulty of accounting for the peculiar radiations from the radio-elements, and the series of changes that occur in them. It is not sufficient for us to account for the heat emission only, for it has been shown (chapter XII) that the emission of heat is directly connected with the radio-activity.
In addition, the distribution of the heat emission of radium amongst the radio-active products which arise from it is extremely difficult to explain on the hypothesis that the energy emitted is borrowed from external sources. It has been shown that more than two-thirds of the heat emitted by radium is due to the emanation together with the active deposit which is produced by the emanation. When the emanation is separated from the radium, its power of emitting heat, after reaching a maximum, decreases with the time according to an exponential law. It would thus be necessary on the absorption hypothesis to postulate that most of the heat emission of radium, observed under ordinary conditions, is not due to the radium itself but to something produced by the radium, whose power of absorbing energy from external sources diminishes with time.
A similar argument also applies to the variation with time of the heating effect of the active deposit produced from the emanation. It has been shown in the last chapter that most of the heating effect observed in radium and its products must be ascribed
