ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1923
Copyright, 1923, By MARIE CURIE.
"It is possible to conceive that in criminal hands radium might prove very dangerous, and the question therefore arises whether it be to the advantage of humanity to know the secrets of nature, whether we he sufficiently mature to profit by them, or whether that knowledge may not prove harmful. Take, for instance, the discoveries of Nobel—powerful explosives have made it possible for men to achieve admirable things, but they are also a terrible means of destruction in the hands of those great criminals who draw nations into war. I am among those who believe with Nobel that humanity will obtain more good than evil from future discoveries."
PIERRE CURIE,
Nobel Conference, 1903.
TRANSLATORS' NOTE
The translators wish to acknowledge their obligations to Dr. R. B. Moore, Chief Chemist, U. S. Bureau of Mines, and an American authority on radium, who kindly read the whole translation in manuscript in order to assure its accuracy as to the technical details referred to by Madame Curie in her account of the work of her husband and herself on radium.