T 
Y 
1879.] 
Rev. Father Lafont'— Crookes' High Vacuum Tithes. 
37. 
Adbhutavibhuti. 
42. 
Sangramabhayanivaraka. 
38. 
Gajabhayanivaraka. 
43. 
Y uddhabhayanivaraka. 
39. 
Bhinnakarikumbha-galaduj- 
44. 
Rishabhanathapurusha. 
valasonitaktamuktaphala- 
45. 
Rogabliayanivaraka. 
bhushitabhumistha. 
46. 
Bandhanabhayaliaraka. 
40. 
Rishabliadeva. 
47. 
Ashtabhayanivaraka. 
41. 
Sarpabhayanivaraka. 
48. 
Vrishabha. 
The Rev. Father Laeokt, s. j., exhibited some of W. Crookes’ High 
Vacuum tubes such as were produced by the inventor at the Sheffield Meet¬ 
ing of the British Association in August last. Two points of great inter¬ 
est were especially noticed : the first is that contrary to our usual views of 
the electric current, the flow in these high vacua evidently proceeds from 
the negative pole of the inductorium. This was prettily shown by two 
different electrical Eudiometers : their delicately balanced vanes were set in 
rapid rotatory motion by the recoil caused by the matter projected from their 
surfaces when made the negative electrode of a large Ehumkorff’s Coil, 
whereas they remained stationary when made the 'positive electrode. One 
of these radiometers very clearly showed the dark space of mean molecular 
free path mentioned in Crookes’ lecture on “ Radiant Matter.” 
The second phenomenon showing a departure from the ordinary laws 
of electrical manifestations, pointed out by Father Lafont, was the appa¬ 
rent inactivity of the positive pole. The negative pole seems totally in¬ 
different towards it. In ordinary Geissler’s tubes the luminous track finds 
always its way through most complicated windings, from positive to nega¬ 
tive, in Crookes’ tubes the flow of luminous matter is darted in space 
straight in front of the negative pole without rejoining the positive pole. 
This was evidenced by two tubes in one of which a little concave mirror 
projected a distinct focus on the surface of the glass in front of it, showing 
no tendency whatever to the positive electrode placed quite close but above 
the mirror. 
In a second tube a distinct shadow was visible on the surface of the 
glass opposite the negative pole : the shadow being thrown by little glass- 
screens placed on the path of the atoms projected by the negative pole. 
These and similar facts bid fair, when properly investigated, to give 
us a better and more intimate notion of the nature of electricity and also 
of the constitution of matter. Crookes himself sees in these tubes, matter 
in something like a fourth state, which he calls, after Faraday, the ultra- 
gaseous state. Father Lafont remarked that the well-known and somewhat 
puzzling phenomenon of stratification of light in Geissler’s tubes, seems 
to bo simply explained, by admitting that these alternations of obscure and 
vivid bands, are the result of the high rarefaction of the gases, permitting 
