Discharge in Rarefied Gases. 183 



to the axis of the cylinder as kathode, from which, therefore, 

 the kathode-rays radiate in the direction of the length of the 

 cylinder, inasmuch as •with a sufficient exhaustion they would 

 extend also through the cylinder II., we should have the fol- 

 lowing course of the electricity : — first from a to the end of 

 the kathode-rays reaching far into II. ; then backwards to the 

 beginning of the bundle of secondary negative light at r; then 

 forwards again (towards the anode) in its rays ; and from the 

 ends of the rays which penetrate into the positive light once 

 more backwards to the first positive layer, so as from these to 

 describe the same course for the third time. 



But now the secondary negative light passes continuously 

 into a layer of positive light when the section of the contrac- 

 tion approaches the width of the communicating portion of the 

 vessel on the side of the anode ; and special experiments show 

 that with small densities the layers which spread out into each 

 other are longer than their apparent intervals. It is not neces- 

 sary to explain how the complication of the assumptions neces- 

 sary to the ordinary representation of the discharge is thus in- 

 creased. 



I do not believe that the common view of the appearances 

 thus far described, whose enumeration might be much extended, 

 will be held to be very probable, and that in order to preserve 

 this view, half a dozen new assumptions will be made as to 

 invisible actions, whose reality can be shown by no verifiable 

 result. In particular, the generally adopted convective view 

 of the discharge ought to find a decisive contradiction in the 

 experiments on the mutual penetration of the different portions 

 of the discharge. 



By numerous comparisons, and taking account of all appa- 

 rently essential phenomena, I have been led to the following 

 view: — 



The kathode-light, each bundle of secondary negative light, as 

 well as each layer of positive light, represent each a separate cur- 

 rent by itself, which begins at the part of each structure turned 

 towards the kathode, and ends at the end of the negative rays 

 or of the stratified structure, without the current flowing in one 

 structure propagating itself into the next, without the electricity 

 which flows through one also traversing the rest in order. 



I suspect, then, that as many new points of departure of the 

 discharge are present in a length of gas between two electrodes 

 as this shows of secondary negative bundles or layers — that as, 

 according to experiments repeatedly mentioned, all the pro- 

 perties and actions of the discharge at the kathode are found 

 again at the secondary negative light and with each layer of 

 positive light, the intimate action is the same with these as it 

 is with those. 



