272 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



light rays are penetrable by other 

 rays produced by electrical dis- 

 cbarges in a very attenuated gaseous 

 medium. How we are to derive any 

 confirmation of the existence of a 

 spiritual body from the action of 

 these rays which could not equally 

 have been drawn from the action 

 of ordinary light rays in traversing 

 such dense substances as glass and 

 various crystals, is a question which 

 it would probably puzzle the Herald 

 and Presbyter to answer. 



4. As to the possibility of two 

 particles of matter occupying the 

 same space at the same time, any one 

 who chooses to indulge that pleasing 

 and profitable fancy can do so ; but 

 how it can help in the present emer- 

 gency we do not see. Any difficulty 

 which there may have been about 

 admitting the doctrine of a spiritual 

 body has not arisen in the least from 

 our ordinary conceptions of matter, 

 because we know perfectly well, and 

 have known for so long that the 

 memory of man runneth not to the 

 contrary, that one form of matter 

 may be permeated by another form 

 — the metals by gases, for example — 

 in varying volumes. The trouble 

 has not been to find room for the 

 spiritual body in the natural body, 

 but to find something more than a 



mere assertion of its existence at all 

 or anywhere. This, unfortunately, is 

 a difficulty which some persons can 

 not be brought to understand : give 

 them leave to think that what they 

 want to believe is not impossible, and 

 presto, they consider it proved. We 

 have no objection in the world to the 

 theory, whether Paul's, or Homer's, 

 or Plato's, of a spiritual body ; but we 

 do think it a little hard that because 

 a laborious experimenter like Ront- 

 gen has brought to light a new prop- 

 erty of radiant energy — while, like a 

 well-trained man of science, he only 

 affirms what he has been able to dem- 

 onstrate — others should rush in and 

 insist that, without being aware of it, 

 he has bolstered up some doctrine of 

 theirs for which not one scintilla of 

 evidence can be given. As this kind 

 of thing, however, evidently can not 

 be helped, we can only hope, as we 

 said before, that in some mysteri- 

 ous way it may serve a useful pur- 

 pose. It is better, on the whole, that 

 each successive advance of science 

 should be acclaimed as a confirma- 

 tion of orthodoxy than denounced as 

 a new manifestation of impiety ; and 

 certainly better far the treatment 

 given to Rontgen and his tubes and 

 screens than that meted out to Gali- 

 leo and his telescojie. 



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The first volume of the Criminology Series was the result of a special 

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 Prof. Ferri is convinced, are of value almost solely with respect to born 

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* Criminal Sociology. 

 $1.50. 



By Enrico Ferri. Tp. 281, ISmo. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price 



