The rays which come from
the tube, in conditions now well known, are not deviated by a magnet,
and, as M. Curie and M. Sagnac have conclusively shown, they carry no
electric charge. They are subject to neither reflection nor
refraction, and very precise and very ingenious measurements by M.
Gouy have shown that, in their case, the refraction index of the
various bodies cannot be more than a millionth removed from unity.
We knew from the outset that there existed various X rays differing
from each other as, for instance, the colours of the spectrum, and
these are distinguished from each other by their unequal power of
passing through substances. M. Sagnac, particularly, has shown that
there can be obtained a gradually decreasing scale of more or less
absorbable rays, so that the greater part of their photographic action
is stopped by a simple sheet of black paper. These rays figure among
the secondary rays discovered, as is known, by this ingenious
physicist. The X rays falling on matter are thus subjected to
transformations which may be compared to those which the phenomena of
luminescence produce on the ultra-violet rays.
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