Page:Radio-activity.djvu/469

 metabolon has a life t, so that the average life of the whole number is given by

[integral]_{0}^[infinity] λte^{-λt}dt = 1/λ.

The various metabolons from the radio-elements are distinguished from ordinary matter by their great instability and consequent rapid rate of change. Since a body which is radio-active must ipso facto be undergoing change, it follows that none of the active products, for example, the emanations and Th X, can consist of any known kind of matter; for there is no evidence to show that inactive matter can be made radio-active, or that two forms of the same element can exist, one radio-active and the other not. For example, half of the matter constituting the radium emanation has undergone change after an interval of four days. After the lapse of about one month the emanation as such has nearly disappeared, having been transformed through several stages into other and more stable types of matter, which are in consequence difficult to detect by their radio-activity.

The striking difference in chemical and physical properties which exists in many cases between the various products themselves, and also between the primary active substance and its products, has already been drawn attention to in chapter. Some of the products show distinctive electro-chemical behaviour and can be removed from a solution by electrolysis. Others show differences in volatility which have been utilized to effect a partial separation. There can be no doubt that each of these products is a definite new chemical substance, and if it could be collected in sufficient quantity to be examined by ordinary chemical means, would be found to behave like a distinct chemical element. It would differ, however, from the ordinary chemical element in the shortness of its life, and the fact that it is continuously changing into another substance. We shall see later (section 261) that there is every reason to believe that radium itself is a metabolon in the true sense of the term, since it is continuously changing, and is itself produced from another substance. The main point of difference between it and the other products lies in the comparative slowness of its rate of change.