ON" THE CHANGE OF EEFRANG1BILITY OF LIGHT. 313
absorption. When the light transmitted by a certain thickness of this fluid was subjected to prismatic examination, it was found to consist of red followed by some orange, when the spectrum was cut off with unusual abruptness. After a broad dark interval came the most refrangible colours faintly appearing. Those solutions which exhibited a copious dispersion of green gave, in addition to a band obliterating the yellow, a very distinct laud separating the green from the blue. A similar band, but by no means distinct, might be seen in archil merely diluted; and it is particularly to be observed that this band, which occurred a little above the point of the spectrum where the green dispersion commenced, became more conspicuous when the green-dispersing principle was present more nearly in a state of isolation.
72. Two portions of litmus were treated, one with ether and the other with alcohol, which were allowed to remain in contact with the solid. Both extracts, but especially the latter, were highly sensitive, exhibiting dispersions of orange and green similar to archil, and due apparently to the same sensitive principles. The ethereal extract dispersed chiefly orange, while the alcoholic extract dispersed orange and green in nearly equal quantities. The latter extract exhibited a remarkably copious dispersive reflection of a colour nearly that of mud, and was altogether one of the strangest looking fluids that I have met with. On viewing it in such a manner that no transmitted light entered the eye, one might almost have supposed that it was muddy water taken from a pool on a road. But when the bottle containing it was held between the eye and a window the fluid was found to be perfectly clear, and of a beautiful purple colour.
Canary Glass.
73. Among media which possess the property of internal dispersion in a high degree, Sir David Brewster mentions a yellow Bohemian glass, which dispersed a brilliant green light. This led me to seek for such a glass, and it proved to be pretty common in ornamental bottles and other articles. The colour of the glass by transmitted light is a pale yellow. Its ornamental character depends in a great measure upon the internal dispersion, which occasions a beautiful and unusual appearance in the articles made
CARNEGIE INSTITUTE