If we are not yet very far advanced in the study of the mechanism of
the production of the spectrum,[47] we are, on the other hand, well
acquainted with its constitution. The extreme confusion which the
spectra of the lines of the gases seemed to present is now, in great
part at least, cleared up. Balmer gave some time since, in the case of
the hydrogen spectrum, an empirical formula which enabled the rays
discovered later by an eminent astronomer, M. Deslandres, to be
represented; but since then, both in the cases of line and band
spectra, the labours of Professor Rydberg, of M. Deslandres, of
Professors Kayzer and Runge, and of M. Thiele, have enabled us to
comprehend, in their smallest details, the laws of the distribution of
lines and bands.
[Footnote 47: Many theories as to the cause of the lines and bands of
the spectrum have been put forward since this was written, among which
that of Professor Stark (for which see _Physikalische Zeitschrift_ for
1906, passim) is perhaps the most advanced. That of M. Jean Becquerel,
which would attribute it to the vibration within the atom of both
negative and positive electrons, also deserves notice.
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