Careful measurements effected by M. Fery have furnished, in
particular, important information on the radiation of the white
oxides; but the phenomena noticed have not yet found a satisfactory
interpretation. Moreover, the radiation of calorific origin is here
accompanied by a more or less important luminescence, and the problem
becomes very complex.
In the same way that, for the purpose of knowing the constitution of
matter, it first occurred to us to investigate gases, which appear to
be molecular edifices built on a more simple and uniform plan than
solids, we ought naturally to think that an examination of the
conditions in which emission and absorption are produced by gaseous
bodies might be eminently profitable, and might perhaps reveal the
mechanism by which the relations between the molecule of the ether and
the molecule of matter might be established.
Unfortunately, if a gas is not absolutely incapable of emitting some
sort of rays by simple heat, the radiation thus produced, no doubt by
reason of the slightness of the mass in play, always remains of
moderate intensity.
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