ON THE CHANGE OF REFEANGTBILITY OF LIGHT.
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in the spectrum. These will be called, in the order of their refrangibility, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, the bright bands below the respective dark bands being also numbered in the same manner. Of the dark bands, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5, are the first four in Sir David Brewster's plate*. No. 4 is mentioned in the memoir, but not represented in the plate, which corresponds to a thickness not sufficient to bring out this band. The last band in the plate could not be seen without strong light. The dark bands Nos. 1 and 2 are situated in the red, No. 3 about the yellow or greenish yellow, No. 4 in the green, and No. 5 early in the blue. Of these, No. 1 is in small thicknesses by far the most intense, and it may be readily seen even in a very dilute solution; it might apparently be used as a chemical test of chlorophyll, or one of its modifications. The test would be of very easy application, since it would be sufficient to hold a test tube with the liquid at arm's length before a candle at a little distance, and view the linear image of the flame through a prism applied to the eye.
50. Fresh and modified leaf-green differ much in the order in which the bright bands are absorbed, and in the degree to which the dark bands are developed before they cease to be visible by the absorption of the part of the spectrum in which they are situated. In the green fluid, the dark band No. 5 is not usually seen, because the spectrum is there cut off, unless a very small thickness be used. With a moderate thickness, Nos. 2 and 3, especially the former, are well seen, and No. 1 is very intense. As the absorption goes on, the bright bands Nos. 2 and 3 are absorbed, and there is left the red band No. 1, and a double green band, consisting of the bright bands Nos. 4? and 5, separated by the dark band No. 4, which by this time has come out. In modified leaf-green, the dark bands Nos. 4 and 5 are much more conspicuous than in the green fluid, but No. 3 is wanting, or all but wanting. With a thickness by which the absorption is well developed, the conspicuous bright bands are in this case Nos. 1 and 3, and next to them No. 2, whereas in the green fluid Nos. 2 and 3 were quickly absorbed, or at lecast the whole of No. 2, and the greater part of No. 3.
51. It seems worthy of remark, that, especially in the case of the green fluid, the absorbing power alters with the refrangibility
* Edinburgh Transactions, Vol. xn.