8o THE WOMBAT. 



rays, as the latter are known to be confined within the glass 

 tube itself; we have therefore to deal with some special rays, 

 which are capable to pass through all bodies, with the 

 exception of some metals, more or less completely. This 

 transparency becomes less the thicker the medium, and is 

 also perceptibly influenced by the density of the medium. A 

 further difference is established by the absence of any 

 deflection of the new rays, even in a strong magnetic field. 

 Prof. Rontgen has meanwhile given them the name of x rays. 

 Similar to the fluorescent effect upon Barium-Platin cyanide 

 these x rays act upon other materials, notably on the phos- 

 phorescent compounds of calcium, on glass, rocksalt, etc. ; 

 special importance, however, attaches to the fact that they 

 act upon photographic dry plates, and so permit of photo- 

 graphs being obtained in broad daylight, the sensitive plate 

 being contained within a closed dark slide. The x rays alone are 

 able to act through the wooden shutter, which in ordinary 

 photography is withdrawn during exposure. This opens up 

 an entirely new field to photography if the table intervening 

 between tube and sensitive be, for instance, a wooden box 

 containing a set of weights, the x rays pass clearly through 

 the box, but not through the metal, and the result will be a 

 photograph of the metallic weights alone. The most striking 

 results were obtained whilst Prof. Rontgen attempted to 

 photograph a human hand ; in this case the plate after 

 development showed the bones of the hand, and apparently 

 freely suspended or floating the rings on the fingers, whilst the 

 fleshy part of the hand remained invisible. Meanwhile the 

 Physical Institute at Leipzig had repeated these experiments, 

 and succeeded in producing the full size photograph of a fish 

 8 inches in length ; its shape is faintly indicated as a dark 

 area, showing some of the interior parts. The bladder 

 appeared very distinctly defined in white ; above it one could 

 see the parallel arrangement of the bones and the distinct 

 impression of the spinal column ; head and tail were clearly 

 outlined. We do not yet venture to state, whether and to 

 what degree this method may be perfected in order to render 

 the interior of the human anatomy visible, but it is to be 

 hoped that further research and experiments will prove suc- 

 cessful, and that we shall be able to realise the hopes raised in 

 suffering humanity. 



J. 



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