Excerpt from The Becquerel Rays: And the Properties of Radium In writing this book, my object has been to give as clear and simple an account of the phenomena of radio-activity as the subject admits of, without sacrificing accuracy. The extraordinary properties of radium have excited general interest outside the scientific world, and there are probably many who would be glad to learn something of the subject, if they could find it explained without the use of technicalities. However essential mathematical methods may be in developing the subject, they are seldom really necessary in presenting the results. Moreover, some idea of the train of reasoning can generally be given in ordinary language. I have not found it possible to avoid assuming some elementary scientific knowledge on the part of the reader, but this has been reduced to the smallest limits, and probably a great part of the book will be intelligible without it. I have not attempted to describe all the phenomena which have been recorded, but have confined myself to those which seemed most significant and interesting. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.