This interpretation can still, at
this present moment, be maintained, and the researches of MM. Buisson,
Righi, Lenard, and Merrit Stewart have even established that rays of
very short wave-lengths produce on metallic conductors, from the point
of view of electrical phenomena, effects quite analogous to those of
the X rays. Another resemblance results also from the experiments by
which M. Perreau established that these rays act on the electric
resistance of selenium. New and valuable arguments have thus added
force to those who incline towards a theory which has the merit of
bringing a new phenomenon within the pale of phenomena previously
known.
Nevertheless the shortest ultra-violet radiations, such as those of M.
Schumann, are still capable of refraction by quartz, and this
difference constitutes, in the minds of many physicists, a serious
enough reason to decide them to reject the more simple hypothesis.
Moreover, the rays of Schumann are, as we have seen, extraordinarily
absorbable,--so much so that they have to be observed in a vacuum.
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