All these strange phenomena suggest bold hypotheses, but to construct
them with any solidity they must be supported by the greatest possible
number of facts. Before admitting a definite explanation of the
phenomena which have their seat in the curious substances discovered
by them, M. and Madame Curie considered, with a great deal of reason,
that they ought first to enrich our knowledge with the exact and
precise facts relating to these bodies and to the effects produced by
the radiations they emit.
Thus M. Curie particularly set himself to study the manner in which
the radioactivity of the emanation is dissipated, and the
radioactivity that this emanation can induce on all bodies. The
radioactivity of the emanation diminishes in accordance with an
exponential law. The constant of time which characterises this
decrease is easily and exactly determined, and has a fixed value,
independent of the conditions of the experiment as well as of the
nature of the gas which is in contact with the radium and becomes
charged with the emanation.
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