Dr. C. K. Akin on Ray-Transmutation. 557 



any substance whatever to any required temperature, by a suit- 

 able adjustment of the element of amplitude alone — provided the 

 substance considered be not absolutely pervious to, or an abso- 

 lute reflector of, the given radiation/'' Now, since metals do 

 absorb Herschellic rays, after some preliminary considerations it 

 was concluded " that incandescence, or an emission of Newtonic 

 rays, which, as proved, might be engendered even by Ritteric 

 rays, will be still more easy to produce by means of Herschellic 

 rays, to which, for some reason or other, a greater heating power 

 is universally acknowledged to belong." In this manner, it was 

 shown as at least highly probable (and no induction can be ab- 

 solutely certain) that the effect which in the case of lime-light is 

 produced in statu nascenti of the rays, might eventually be 

 produced also by rays incident upon lime or platinum after ema- 

 nation from a source placed at a distance. 



4. It will be seen from the above quotations, to what extent, 

 and in what sense, Prof. Tyndall's " reasoning" was "dif- 

 ferent" from my own. But I will venture to make yet one 

 further remark, of more general application. The British 

 Association is one of the foremost scientific bodies in the United 

 Kingdom ; and it is well known that, soon after its annual 

 meetings are over, an account of its proceedings, authentic for 

 the most part, is published in the ' Athenaeum 3 newspaper. 

 Clearly it is the duty of scientific persons to consult the 

 ' Athenaeum ' during such portion of the year, in the same way 

 as it is their duty to consult the Philosophical Magazine all the 

 year round. Now in No. 1872 of the ( Athenaeum/ p. 337,, 

 column 3 (Sept. 12, 1863), the following was published : — 

 " The author conceived that the action of carbon and lime ren- 

 dering the strongest heat of burning hydrogen luminous, were 

 instances of the Herschelian rays being raised to the Newtonian ; 

 and as Prof. Stokes had termed the other influence c fluorescence/ 

 Dr. Akin proposed to term this ' calcescence/ from the power of 

 lime to turn heat into powerful illumination"*. 



These sentences are taken from an abstract of the first of the 

 two papers read by me before the Mathematical and Physical 

 Section of the British Association at Newcastle, but for which 

 I am not responsible. It would be superfluous to point out 

 here its inaccuracies; but the explanation of lime-light proposed 

 by me is but too transparent, and in fact twice repeated, in the 

 passage I have quoted. Now I will allow, for argument's sake, 

 that the abstract referred to had escaped Prof. Tyndall's notice. 

 In January 1864 an article appeared in the ' Saturday Review/ 



* The term "calcescence" was actually suggested to me by one of the 

 Secretaries of the Section of the British Association before which the paper 

 referred to was read at Newcastle. — C. K. A. 



