production of active matter is altered by the conversion, there should be an increase or decrease of activity to a new steady value, where the production of active matter is again balanced by the rate of decay. This method has the great advantage of being independent of the physical condition of the precipitate. It can be applied satisfactorily to a compound of thorium like the nitrate and the oxide which has been heated to a white heat, after which treatment only a slight amount of emanation escapes. The nitrate was converted into the oxide in a platinum crucible by treatment with sulphuric acid and ignition to a white heat. The oxide so obtained was spread on a plate, but no change of its activity was observed with time, showing that in this case the rate of production was independent of molecular state. This method, which is limited in the case of thorium, may be applied generally to the uranium compounds where the results are not complicated by the presence of an emanation.
No differences have yet been observed in the recovery curves of different thorium compounds after the removal of Th X. For example, the rate of recovery is the same whether the precipitated hydroxide is converted into the oxide or into the sulphate.
136. Disintegration hypothesis. In the discussion of the
changes in radio-active bodies, only the active products Ur X
and Th X have been considered. It will, however, be shown later
that these two products are only examples of many other types of
active matter which are produced by the radio-elements, and that
each of these types of active matter has definite chemical as well
as radio-active properties, which distinguish it, not only from the
other active products, but also from the substance from which it is
produced.
The full investigation of these changes will be shown to verify in every particular the hypothesis that radio-activity is the accompaniment of chemical changes of a special kind occurring in matter, and that the constant activity of the radio-elements is due to an equilibrium process, in which the rate of production of fresh active matter balances the rate of change of that already formed.
The nature of the process taking place in the radio-elements,
