distance between the plates when that distance is varied from 1 millimetre to 2 centimetres. This experiment shows that the amount of excited activity depends only on the amount of emanation emitted from the thoria; for the ionization produced with a distance of 2 centimetres between the plates is about ten times as great as with a distance of 1 millimetre.
178. If a platinum wire be made active by exposure to the emanation of thoria, its activity can be removed by treating the wire with certain acids4. For example, the activity is not much altered by immersing the wire in hot or cold water or nitric acid, but more than 80% of it is removed by dilute or concentrated solutions of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid. The activity has not been destroyed by this treatment but is manifested in the solution. If the solution be evaporated, the activity remains behind on the dish.
These results show that the excited activity is due to a deposit on the surface of bodies of radio-active matter which has definite properties as regards solution in acids. This active matter is dissolved in some acids, but, when the solvent is evaporated, the active matter is left behind. This active matter is deposited on the surface of bodies, for it can be partly removed by rubbing the body with a cloth, and almost completely by scouring the plate with sand or emery paper. If a negatively charged wire is placed in the presence of a large quantity of radium emanation, it becomes intensely active. If the wire, after removal, is drawn across a screen of zinc sulphide, or willemite, a portion of the active matter is rubbed off, and a luminous trail is left behind on the screen. The amount of active matter deposited is extremely small, for no difference of weight has been detected in a platinum wire when made extremely active. On examining the wire under a microscope, no trace of foreign matter is observed. It follows from these results that the matter which causes excited activity is many thousand times more active, weight for weight, than radium itself.
It is convenient to have a definite name for