The phenomena of the emission of light compels us to think
that the corpuscles revolve round the nucleus with extreme velocities,
or at the rate of thousands of billions of evolutions per second. It
is easy to conceive from this that, notwithstanding its lightness, an
atom thus constituted may possess an enormous energy.[43]
[Footnote 43: This view of the case has been made very clear by M.
Gustave le Bon in _L'Evolution de la Matiere_ (Paris, 1906). See
especially pp. 36-52, where the amount of the supposed intra-atomic
energy is calculated.--ED.]
Other authors imagine that the energy of the corpuscles is principally
due to the extremely rapid rotations of those elements on their own
axes. Lord Kelvin lately drew up on another model the plan of a
radioactive atom capable of ejecting an electron with a considerable
_vis viva_. He supposes a spherical atom formed of concentric layers
of positive and negative electricity disposed in such a way that its
external action is null, and that, nevertheless, the force emanated
from the centre may be repellent for certain values when the electron
is within it.
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