272 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



made. But we can see more than this. So far we say that light con- 

 sists of waves, merely in the sense that it consists of some phenomenon 

 or other which is periodic in time and in place ; but we know that a 

 ray of light is capable of doing work. Radiant heat, for example, 

 striking on a body, will warm it and enable it to do work by expan- 

 sion ; therefore this periodic phenomenon which takes place in the ray 

 of light is something or other which possesses mechanical energy, 

 which is capable of doing work. We may make it, if you like, a mere 

 matter of definition, and say, "Any change which possesses energy is 

 a motion of matter;" and this is perhaps the most intelligible defini- 

 tion of matter that we can frame. In that sense, and in that sense 

 only, it is a matter of demonstration, and not a matter of guess, that 

 light consists of the periodic motion of matter which is between the 

 luminous object and our eyes. But that something is not matter in 

 the ordinary sense of the term, it is not made up of such molecules as 

 gases and liquids and solids are made up of. This last statement, 

 again, is no guess, but a proved fact. 



There are people who ask, "Why is it necessary to suppose a lumi- 

 niferous ether to be any thing else except molecules of matter in space, 

 in order to carry light about ? " The answer is a very simple one. In 

 order that separate molecules may carry about a disturbance, it is 

 necessary that they should travel at least as fast as the disturbance 

 travels. Now we know, by means that I shall afterward come to, 

 that the molecules of gas travel at a very ordinary rate, about twenty 

 times as fast as a good train. But, on the contrary, we know by the 

 most certain of all evidence, by five or six different means, that the 

 velocity of light is 200,000 miles a second. Bj'- that very simple 

 means we are able to tell that it is quite impossible for light to be 

 carried by the molecules of ordinary matter, and that it wants some- 

 thing else that lies between those molecules to carry the light. Now, 

 remembering the evidence which we have for the existence of this 

 ether, let us consider another piece of evidence, let us now consider 

 what evidence we have that the molecules of a gas are separate from 

 one another and have something between them. We find out by ex- 

 periment, again, that the different colors of light depend upon the 

 various rapidity of these waves, depend upon the size and upon the 

 length of the waves that travel through the ether, and that when we 

 send light through glass or any transparent medium except a vacuum, 

 the waves of difierent lengths travel with difierent velocities. That 

 is the case with the sea ; we find that long waves travel faster than 

 small ones. In much the same way, when light comes out of a vacu- 

 um and impinges upon any transparent medium, say upon glass, we 

 find that the rate of transmission of all the light is diminished, that 

 it goes slower when it gets inside of a material body; and that this 

 change is greater in the case of large waves than of small ones. The 

 small waves correspond to blue light and the large waves correspond 



