The Charlotte Democrat., 1896-06-18
The True Story of the x Rays.
Baltimore Sun.

3alIiiiGOre Sun
The closing years of the nineteenth
century have been notable for the pro-
gress and achievements Of woman in
nearly every field of effort. There is
scarcely anything which she has not &C.
complished, or attempted. OF late
and nothing which she is not will
ing 10 try. In this new era of
feminine emancipation and progress
she has triumphantiy demonstrated
the hollowness of a thousand social and
intellectual conventions, and utterly set
at naught pumbeIless vain traditions of
the elders. In law. in medicine, in poli-
tics, in the pulpit, in business, in litera
ture in boomers and on bicycles she has
come to the front and has shown in all of
them that she can ho Id her own. What
she has done in all these directions is as
familiar as thrice-told tale, but it 10 not
generally known that Cne of the most re.
marBable scientific discoveries Of the age
that involving the principle of the X
ray-falsely attributed to a man, is in
reality due to The Investigations of wo>
man, and Maryland woman at that. We
tell the story as it was recently told to
us: Several years before Roentgen an
nounced his discovery, charming and
beautiful Maryland girl now happily mar
ried, was spending one of her summer
vacations on the Eastern Shore. Being
q devoted naturalist and as brave as q
lion-a girl who would not tremble even
in the presence of mousse she pursued
her favorite hobby with enthusiasm and
made many valuable contributions to
natural history. During this memorable 9
vacation, one of the results of her re-
searches, which may be mentioned in
passing, being a comparison of the Jersey
mosquito and that of the Eastern Shore,
in which she proved beyond question that
the Jersey bird is vicious and irrecIaim.
able aerial pirate, while that of Mary land
is benevolentsminded leech, bent solely
upon doing good to all within his reach.
But this is only by the way. Her dis
covery of the x ray was made in diff
ferent fashion. Her attention was at
tracted one lovely night in June by the
impressive, Wagneran music of batra-
chian band. of the rama pipienS genus,
commonly known as the bullfrog. Being
a Greek scholar as well as a naturalist,
and emembering Arstophanes' comedy
of the "Frogs," in which their melodious
sounds are represented by the words Bre-
kekeker Koar KoaG, as well that great
English classic, GA frog he would a-woo-
ing CO." it occurred to her that careful
study of the social life and habits of these
persevering musicians might be pros
ductve OF important results, BY nightly
courtesies in the form of bread-crumbs
she soon gained the friendship and cons
fdence of sew veral of the lady frogs, and
was distressed to learn that frog life un.
der the water was in some of it's aspects
very similar to hnman life on land. The
frogs with the loudest volCes and the
most sonorous tones, from whom one
might have expected the noblest senti-
ments and the highest ideals were, she
was informed often the most greedy and
selfish. There was one in particular
whose fine, solemn bass seemed to indi-
cate frog of the most deeply religious
disposition, who was represented by his
weeping wife and neglected children
to be reprobate of the first order. He
not only failed to provide for his family
while gorging himself with the choisest
viands, but he was constantly carrying
on desperate Irritation with pretty but
designing widow in the adjoining mill>
pond. He added lying, moreover, to his
other evil habits, for when he came back
from these excursions and was asked by
his wife where he had been, he would re-
ply in his most pious tones: 81 have been
to church, have been 10 church, l have
been to chusch."
Sympathizing with the long suffering
wife, our Maryland maiden summoned
all the resources OF science to her aid in
order to expose this double-dyed william.
She knew that the male frog. like the
male of the human species, cannot stand
the light when his deads are evil. She
therefore resolved to illuminate him, to
show him up to the whole frog communi>
ty in his true colors. Accordingly one
night as he came hopping complacently
along after visit to the widow, hum
ming to himself "Sweet Marie, Come to
Me-" she called to him in frog language
and asked him if he didn't want some
thing nice to eat. He replied that he
did, as he had eaten nothing for several
DAYS, owing to his unselfsh devotion to
his large and growing family. He open-
ed his mouth wide, and our scientist pro-
ceeded to feed him with large number
of lightning bugs which she had caught
for the purpose. He swallowed them
greediy, and she continued to feed them
to him till he was full of lightning bugs
from his heels to his head. He WAS &c
full of them, in fact, according to the
lady who is responsible for this narrative
that she could see right into him and
clear through him. He was lit un
through and through by the X rays OF the
lightning bugs, and his false heart, on
which the widows name was written in
plain characters, was visible to every eye
Then the lady called all the frogs, and
the whole community responded, and
when they saw the illuminated frog and
the shocking depravity of his character
as it stood revealed by this ingenious
scientific device, they sang song OF deep
indignation, which concluded with the
refrain-"Drum him out. drum him out. v
This experiment contained the germ o1
the idea which Roentgen subsequently
developed. There was but step, obvious
ly, from lightning bugs to lightning or to
it's domesticated equivalent, electricity
The X rays that our feminine investiga'
tor directed upon the frogs of the Mary
land marshes have grown in spiendol
until they have become the latest won
der of science. Her achievement de-
serves to be rescued from oblivion anc
credited to her sex, which will, doubtless
hail with pride representative who is st
sLillad in exnosino the "waVs that are