THE N RAYS OF M. ELONDLOT. 213 



TRANSMISSION OF THE N KAYS ALONG WIRES. 



Ill the course of M. Charpentier's experiiiieiits he found that the 

 rays emitted l)y tlie human l)ody are capabk' of being- transmitted not 

 only in the air, ]>ut along wires of metal, such as copper or aluminum. 

 This extraordinary discovery has been explained by M. Bichat, who 

 ol)serves that this method of transmission may be compared to the 

 repeated reflections of ordinary light within a long glass tube. His 

 experiments indicated first of all that the wire itself was certainl}^ the 

 conductor of the rays, and not the medium in which it was .placed, 

 for upon immersing the wire in water the conductivity remained undi- 

 minished. It was necessary, moreover, that the Avire should be of good 

 transmitting material, for leaden wires are said to transmit nothing. 

 The wire must not be bent at a sharp angle, nor should it be rough at 

 any point, for in these cases the internal reflections along its boundary 

 can not be pro})agated. 



Nj RAYS. 



Some veiy recent experiments of M. Blondlot led him to think that, 

 whereas the N rays augument the luminosity of certain sources of 

 light, there is another kind of raj^s associated with them which 

 diminishes instead of augments the luminosity, and he has investigated 

 these ra3"s among those emitted by a Nernst lamp. These so-called 

 Ni ra3^s he finds to be reflected and refracted similarh^ to the N rays, 

 but to lie alternately with them in wave length, so that, for example, 

 he states that a group of Nj ra3's exists of wave length .003yM, a group 

 of N ra3's at 0.0048yu, another group of N^ rays at 0.0056yw, N rays at 

 0.0067yw, and N^ rays at 0.0074//. All of these new groups, both N 

 and Nj, are of smaller w^ave length than those included in the table 

 alread3^ given. 



Certain sources appear to emit exclusively, or at least principally, 

 the Nj rays, such as copper, silver, and platinum. The Nj ra3^s may 

 be stored up, ho states, like the N rays. 



CONCLUSION. 



To sum up these newly reported discoveries and experiments, it 

 appears that several other men of scientific standing and attainments 

 have repeated and verified M. Blondlot's discoveries of the N and N^ 

 rays and those of M. Charpentier on the rays emitted b3' living bodies. 

 The observations appear, however, to be diflicult. and many able 

 observers who have endeavored to repeat the experiments have not 

 been able to verify even the existence of such radiations, to say noth- 

 ing of making measurements of their wave length by the diffraction 

 grating. It has been stated in Criticism that augmentation of bright- 

 ness in phosphorescent substances ma3' be the result of several causes, 



