t "the vibrations of light are themselves
electric currents." Now if this is true, and I believe it to be true, as
I hope to prove later on from Clerk Maxwell's works, then it necessarily
follows, that wherever we get aetherial light waves, we must at the
same time also get aetherial electric waves. If that be so, then in the
solar spectrum we ought to have revealed to us, not only indications of
the presence of the heat and light vibrations, but equally so the
presence of electric waves. This, I believe, is actually the case, and
the electric waves are the so-called chemical waves in the violet and
ultra-violet end of the spectrum. I think that we shall find sufficient
arguments and analogy to support this hypothesis, as we look further
into the matter. One of the greatest scientists of the past century,
Clerk Maxwell, has given to the world the genesis of what he termed the
Electro-Magnetic Theory of Light, in which he proved that light was
nothing more nor less than an electro-magnetic phenomenon. He pointed out
that the same Aether which was concerned in the propagation of light and
heat through space, must therefore be equally concerned in the
propagation of electric displacements in the free Aether; as he states,
it would be philosophically wrong to assume that there was one aetherial
medium for light, and another for electric phenomena. If, therefore,
there is such a theory as the Electro-Magnetic Theory of Light, and
there undoubtedly is, as has been proved by the researches of Hertz on
electric waves, then it follows, either that light waves are themselves
electric currents, as suggested by Lorentz, or that the light waves are
directly associated with electric waves in the same way that they are
associated with heat waves. So that the only difference between them
would be one of period of vibration and of length, the electric waves of
the Aether being of greater rapidity and therefore of shorter length
than either the light or heat waves. The only conclusion, therefore,
that it seems possible to come to regarding these chemical waves is,
that they are the electric waves of the spectrum. Thus, in the solar
spectrum, there are three classes of waves indicated by the various
colours, and beyond the limits of these colours, viz. (1) Thermal or
Heat waves in the red or ultra-red end of the spectrum; (2) Luminous or
Light waves at the middle of the spectrum; and (3) Electric or Chemical
waves in the violet or ultra-vio