5 1 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Hertz are of a much more complex nature than the experiments 

 would leave one to infer. 



When we remember the effect which electricity has upon the 

 plane of polarized light, it would seem that Hertz's wave-lengths 

 are of an entirely different order from what they should be. How 

 can electrical wave-lengths of one metre be in any way associated 

 with light- waves of less than one billionth of a millimetre ? What- 

 ever we have known of the wave lengths of the ether, in radiant 

 heat and light, has always been of that infinitesimal order. Still, 

 should the velocity of propagation of electrical waves be much 

 greater than has been supposed, then with these large wave-lengths 

 the times of oscillation could be of the same order as those of 

 light. 



Hertz, however, has a system of stationary waves, and it would 

 seem that no direct calculations could give a correct value for the 

 time of oscillation. This can be shown by moving a long trough 

 of water. By holding one end in the hand, suitable impulses can 

 be given so as to produce any desired wave-lengths. Should 

 Hertz be wrong in his conclusions, still the impulse which he has 

 given in this direction is sure to fructify. It is possible that in- 

 duction may be found to be a phenomenon of pure wave-motion, 

 and that it can be likened directly to radiation. Could we then 

 carry the comparison still further, and say that a conductor is an 

 opaque medium ; that a dielectric is transparent — then we would 

 likely soon be constructing electrical lenses, would be detecting 

 electrical refraction, diffraction, and possibly be constructing an 

 electrical spectrum. Doubtless, if not this, some similar thing 

 will develop, and no young physicist need then say that all the 

 things in physics have already been discovered and measured. 



-♦•♦- 



THE WASTES OF MODERN CIVILIZATION. 



Br FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. 

 I. 



YARNHAGEN von ENSE, the German Macaulay, character- 

 izes the shams of our latter-day civilization in the remark 

 that " a constant improvement in the luster of the varnish has 

 kept up with the progressive dry-rot of the timber." 



The historian thus denounces the increasing political corrup- 

 tion of his age, but his aphorism admits of a much wider applica- 

 tion. The increase of prudery masks the decadence of the virtue 

 it tries to simulate ; modern courtesies of speech too often conceal 

 the baldest egotism ; callous inhumanity is glossed over with sen- 

 timental cant. 



