From a Photo.
"It is quite true," said M. Danne, "that pure radium gives out light and heat without any waste or diminution that can be detected by our most delicate instruments. That is all we can say."
"Is the light that it gives a bright light?"
"Reasonably bright. M. Curie will show you."
"Can he explain it? Can anyone explain it?"
"There are various theories, but they really explain very little."
M. Danne went on to indicate other properties of radium that are scarcely less startling than these. Besides heat and light this strange metal gives out constantly three kinds of invisible rays that move with the velocity of light, or thereabouts, and, that have separate and well-marked attributes. These rays may be helpful or harmful, they may destroy life or stimulate it. They are capable not only of shortening life or prolonging it, but of modifying existing forms of life—that is, of actually creating new species. Finally, by destroying bacteria, they may be used to cure disease, notably the dread lupus, recently conquered by Finsen's lamps, and now apparently conquered again by a simpler means.
I listened in amazement; it was not one discovery, but a dozen, that we were contemplating.
"And—all this is M. Curie's discovery?"
"Radium is his discovery; that is, his and Mme. Curie's. You cannot give one more credit than the other. They did it together."