attempts to meet them may therefore be of some interest.
I have already described the contact-sensitiveness of various elementary substances to electric radiation. It was shown that though many substances exhibit a diminution of contact-resistance, there are others which show an increase of resistance which, in certain cases, lasts only during the impact of electric waves, the sensitive substance automatically recovering its original conductivity on the cessation of radiation. There are thus produced two opposite effects, either an increase or a diminution of resistance, depending on the nature of the substance.
The effect of increase of contact-resistance is not an exceptional or isolated phenomenon, but is as normal and definite under varied conditions as the diminution of resistance noticed in the case of iron filings. These two specifically different effects have to be recognised, and it would be advisable, to avoid misunderstanding, to use a simple term to indicate both these effects, and distinguish them from one another, by calling the one positive and the other negative. The term "coherence" applied to the normal diminution of resistance exhibited by certain metals by the action of electric waves cannot be applied in all cases; for, as has been said before, there is another class of substances which exhibits under normal conditions an increase of resistance. The term "decoherence" has been used to indicate the effect of mechanical tapping, on fatigued substances of the former class; this produces an increase of resistance, and at the same time restores the sensitiveness. The action of tapping on fatigued specimens of the latter class is, however, a diminution of resistance.
