with more or less frankness, that, in view of Röntgen's discovery,
science must forth-with revise, possibly to a revolutionary degree,
the long accepted theories concerning the phenomena of light and
sound. That the X rays, in their mode of action, combine a strange
resemblance to both sound and light vibrations, and are destined to
materially affect, if they do not greatly alter, our views of both
phenomena, is already certain; and beyond this is the opening into
a new and unknown field of physical knowledge, concerning which
speculation is already eager, and experimental investigation already
in hand, in London, Paris, Berlin, and, perhaps, to a greater or less
extent, in every well-equipped physical laboratory in Europe.

This is the present scientific aspect of the discovery. But, unlike
most epoch-making results from laboratories, this discovery is one
which, to a very unusual degree, is within the grasp of the popular
and non-technical imagination. Among the other kinds of matter
which these rays penetrate with ease is the human flesh. That a new
photography has suddenly arisen which can photograph the bones, and,
before long, the organs of the human body; that a light has been found
which can penetrate, so as to make a photographic record, through
everything from a purse or a pocket to the walls of a room or a house,
is news which cannot fail to startle everybody. That the eye of the
physician or surgeon, long baffled by the skin, and vainly seeking
to penetrate the unfortunate darkness of the human body, is now to be
supplemented by a camera, making all the parts of the human body as
visible, in a way, as the exterior, appears certainly to be a greater
blessing to humanity than even the Listerian antiseptic system of
surgery; and its benefits must inevitably be greater than those
conferred by Lister, great as the latter have been. Already, in
the few weeks since Röntgen's announcement, the results of surgical