NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



tions we call heat. So, too, spectrum analysis, the 

 investigation of the properties of substances by 

 means of light passed through a prism, has re- 

 ceived a powerful aid, and it has been possible to 

 isolate and analyze several new elements which 

 had previously baffled inquiry. 



Such are the fruits of the last ten years ; for into 

 this world of cold beyond our senses we have but 

 just set foot. 



Were we to turn about, and from regions of 

 utter cold seek those of extremest heat, it would 

 be an equally topsy-turvy world we should enter. 

 Nothing seems more certain in our every-day life 

 than that if things get hot enough they will burn- 

 that is to say, combine with oxygen and sublimate 

 in smoke or invisible gas. But at the tempera- 

 ture of the electric arc coal, even, does not burn. 

 It becomes incandescent, and disappears slowly 

 in invisible vapor ; but it does not unite with oxy- 

 gen ; this most familiar of chemical reactions refuses 

 to take place. Even the compound carbonic acid, 

 formed in the burning of coal, or in the body and 

 given off by the lungs, is dissociated, the atoms 

 torn apart by the fierce heat, and made to repel 

 rather than attract. 



The flame of the electric arc is the extreme of 

 heat, as yet known. At this temperature, about 



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