Let us see why this is so.
TRANSMUTATION OF THE ELEMENTS
The dream of the alchemist was to transmute one element into another,
with the prime object of producing gold. Such transmutation has been
actually accomplished within the last few years, but the process
is invariably one of disintegration--the more complex elements
being broken up into simpler constituents. Much remains to be done
in this same direction; and here the stars and nebulae, which show
the spectra of the elements under a great variety of conditions,
should help to point the way. The progressive changes in spectra,
from the exclusive indications of the simple elements hydrogen,
helium, nitrogen, possibly carbon, and the terrestrially unknown
gas nebulium in the gaseous nebulae, to the long list of familiar
substances, including several chemical compounds, in the red stars,
may prove to be fundamentally significant when adequately studied
from the standpoint of the investigator of atomic structure. The
existing evidence seems to favor the view, recently expressed by
Saha, that many of these differences are due to varying degrees
of ionization, the outer electrons of the atoms being split off
by high temperature or electrical excitation. It is even possible
that cosmic crucibles, unrivalled by terrestrial ones, may help
materially to reveal the secret of the formation of complex elements
from simpler ones.
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