[117] Sir WILLIAM A. TILDEN: _The Elements: Speculations as to their Nature and Origin_ (1910), pp. 108, 109, 133 and 134. With regard to Sir William Tilden’s remarks, it is very interesting to note that Swedenborg (who was born when Newton was between forty and fifty years old) not only differed from that great philosopher on those very points on which modern scientific philosophy is at variance with Newton, but, as is now recognised by scientific men, anticipated many modern discoveries and scientific theories. It would be a most interesting task to set forth the agreement existing between Swedenborg’s theories and the latest products of scientific thought concerning the nature of the physical universe. Such, however, would lie without the confines of the present work. The Production of Neon from Emanation. § =97.= As we have already indicated above (§ 93), the radium emanation contains a vast store of potential energy, and it was with the idea of utilising this energy for bringing about chemical changes that Sir William Ramsay[118] undertook a research on the chemical action of this substance--a research with the most surprising and the most interesting results, for the energy contained within the radium emanation appeared to behave like a veritable Philosopher’s Stone. The first experiments were carried out on distilled water. It had already been observed that the emanation decomposes water into its gaseous elements, oxygen and hydrogen, and that the latter is always produced in excess. These results were confirmed and the presence of hydrogen peroxide was detected, explaining the formation of an excess of hydrogen; it was also shown that the emanation brings about the reverse change to some extent, causing oxygen and hydrogen to unite with the production of water, until a position of equilibrium is attained. On examining spectroscopically the gas obtained by the action of the emanation on water, after the removal of the ordinary gases, a most surprising result was observed--the gas showed a brilliant spectrum of neon, accompanied with some faint helium lines. A more careful experiment was carried out later by Sir William Ramsay and Mr. Cameron, in which a silica bulb was employed instead of glass. The spectrum of the residual gas after removing ordinary gases was successfully photographed, and a large number of the neon lines identified; helium was also present. The presence of neon could not be explained, in Ramsay’s opinion, by leakage of air into the apparatus, as the percentage of neon in the air is not sufficiently high, whereas this suggestion might be put forward in the case of argon. Moreover, the neon could not have come from the aluminium of the electrodes (in which it might be thought to have been occluded), as the sparking tube had been used and tested before the experiment was carried out. The authors conclude: “We must regard the transformation of