SUBJECTS transmutation

Page [2] contains the full original title page. Introduction by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst. "Alchemy is philosophy it is the philosophy, the seeking out of the Sophia in the mind." Theory of Transmutation The Golden Treatise The True Subject The Mysteries Experimental Method Manifestation of the Matter Mental Requisites and Impediments The Gross Work The Six Keys Rewards and Potencies... 

It is only yesterday that we heard of a discovery by Sir William Ramsay and other scientists—working, I believe, independently— which may mean the transmutation of one chemical element into another—subject, of course, to the validity of Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson s alternative contention. We must seek to know more of the trend of recent discovery in this direction, and we need to be informed by someone who has an eye to the efforts of the past, but also a complete disregard of any a priori reasonings which actuated those efforts. 

In Soddy s 1908 Interpretation of Radium lectures, he laid out the current state of knowledge about radiation and radium, discussing with scientific specificity (but in relatively accessible terms) the history of the last decade of discoveries in radioactivity and current interpretations of them. But the lectures and book concluded with more imaginative, less strictly scientific speculations about the uses of such knowledge and the powers of the energy released by atomic transmutation. Returning to the subject of alchemy, Soddy noted ... 

A little later Madame Curie and Mademoiselle GHeditsch repeated Cameron and Ramsay s experiments on copper salts, using, however, platinum apparatus. They failed to detect lithium after the action of the emanation, and think that Cameron and Ramsay s results may be due to the glass vessels employed. Dr. Perman has investigated the direct action of the emanation on copper and gold, and has failed to detect any trace of lithium. The transmutation of copper into lithium, therefore, must be regarded as unproved, but further research is necessary before any conclusive statements can be made on the subject. 

Today this research programme raises a sarcastic smile. However, the basic idea behind it, whereby all forms of matter have a common origin and can transmute from one form to another, lines up well with the contemporary notion of a unified theory of matter. In this, science owes something to alchemy. In their untiring quest for gold, the alchemists subjected every known substance to the test of fire and acid aqua regia), thus paving the way to modem chemistry. 

More of this apparent nonsense about elemental liquid dispersion is encountered in many other Notes. No matter the basic scenario seems to have had its previously published source, and, once again, that literary precedent is (albeit creatively garbled to a huge degree by Duchamp s poetic transmutations) to be found in Pernety s Dictionnaire Mytho Hermitique. In this instance, our real subject is nothing less than matter itself, la Matitre ... 

Radioisotopes are also used in radiation therapy to treat cancer. The goal in radiation therapy is to kill malignant cells, while protecting healthy tissue from radiation effects. Radioisotopes such as yttrium-90, a beta emitter, may be placed directly in the tumor. Alternatively, the diseased tissue may be subjected to beams of gamma radiation. Cobalt-60 used in radiation therapy is prepared by a series of transmutations ... 

By this time, Rutherford had evidence that hydrogen nuclei could come from more complex nuclei (56). In 1919, he reported an anomalous effect when he subjected diy air to a particles H atoms seemed to be produced even when there was no hydrogen in the system Rutherford correctly interpreted the presence of H nuclei as a sign that the a particles caused some sort of transmutation, and that the H nuclei were fragments of that reaction. I infer from Rutherford s use of the term disintegration that he pictured the reaction as an induced fission of nitrogen. In fact, the reaction was + He — + H. Rutherford and his associates... 

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