The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-28
WHAT ROENTGEN RAYS HAVE
 DONE.

DONE.
 The discovery of radium has eclips- ed in popular estimation the discovery of the Roentgen rays, the decennial an- Iniversary of which has been celebrated in Berlin under the appropriate presi- tdency of the most distinguished of German surgeons. It may certainly be admitted that the later discovery is of incalculably greater theoretical import ance, since it has led to new theory of matter, has established the princi- pie of evolution in the last strong hold of its opponents, and has, indeed, initiated a new epoch in physical sci- ence. Prof. Roentgen's discovery, in 1855, has done none of these things. Of course, it cannot be said that the Roe ntgen rays are of no theoretical im- pCrtanCe, for it is something to have extended the gamut of ethereal Yibra- tions to many octaves beyond the notes" of ultra violet light; but it is especially the practical importance of these rays that will endow with per- manencc the name of the WurZburg professor. In this regard, the ROengOt- gen rays leave raiium far behind, for it may be said that the practice of sur gery has received no such aid as from them since the work of Lord Lister thirty years ago.
 The doctors did not wait for the physicists to determine the value of x. fThey merely to the mysterious rays without inquiry and proceeded to uti- lize them, Only the other day we heard from America that the field E their action has been extended, with success. to some of the most obscure and intractable of the so-called dis eases of the blood" and, indeed, their therapeutic properties have long ago outweighted their use in diagnosis, uni que though that be
 1 Nevertheless. practice is always, in the long run, at the mercy of theory. Emplricism may go long way, but never so far as science properly so called. It is becoming evident, for in- stance, that in order to obtain the full benefit of the therapeutic action of these rays the doctor must wait upon the physicists. A whole host of conditions still undetermined affects the charae- ter and thus the biological properties of the rays.
 There are doubtless as many different kinds of Roentgen ray as of visible light; and at present the surgeon has the very vaguest ideas as to the kind that he is using. Indeed, he can never be sure of using the same kind, still less the same amount of any kind, on two consecutive occasions. Hence, no doubt, the vast confusion and the many contradictions that obtain be- tween the experiences of different surgeons, or the same surgeon on diff ferent occasions. These practical dif- faculties will be resolved. for the pub lie benefit not by the surgeons but by the physicists.
 That there is a reality correspond ing to what we call the ether no one now doubts, despite the fact, observed by Mill and Spencer, that we are ap- parently compelled, to postulate in- compatible properties thereof. We are further certain that this ether is capable of propagating, in straight lines, waves of vibrations which are transverse to the line of propagation. CThere is no known reason why why the the ether should not vibrate in waves to and fro in the line of propa- tion as does air when thrown into those movements which we tranlate as sound. Professor Roentgen at fist thought that his rays might consist of such vibrations, but that view has been abandoned.)
 Now, the most familiar and longest i known of these transverse ethereal yi- brattons constitute what our retina and brain translate as light. We can see just about one octave of these; but there is no reason why there should not be an indefinite number of octayes in- visible to us-though perhaps the lower animals may see some that we cannot Many kinds of vibration are now known to be as comparable to light as one not on piano to another. These include the Herzian waves, and, in- deed, electrical waves in general. the Roentgen rays, the waves of radiant heat, ultra-violet light and many more named after their discoverersfi Bec- querel Lenard, Lebedew, etc.
 It has been proved for some of these, and is probably true of all, that their onward speed through the ether is identical with the long-known speed of iight-a fact which consorts with the theory of their essential identy with light There is thus no real dis tinction between signaling by the helli- ograph and signaling with Marcont apparatus, save that the eye can see one message, but not the other. Both travel at the same speed, a little more than 1SO,0OO miles in every second. Talk ing this figure, we may gain some idea of cosmic distances if we realize that the light by which the nearest fixed star is seen tonight left it in the last moments of the nineteenth century, Pal Mall Gazette. ! stTs if lively o11t hern2"