ON THE CHANGE OF REFRANGIB1LITY OF LIGHT.
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had been mistaken for G, though certainly no reason appears why such a group should not have had its counterpart on the white part. However, to remove all doubts, I refracted the system in the direction of the fixed lines, and then turned the prism round the axis of the eye through 90°, when the plane of refraction was situated as before. At first the two portions of the line G were of course seen in the same straight line; and the perfect continuity with which, as the prism turned round, the appearance changed into what had been first seen, left not the shadow of a doubt as to the reality of the dislocation.
91. The cause of the whole appearance is plain enough. The light coming from the illuminated part of the yellow paper consisted, in the neighbourhood of G, of two portions; the first, indigo light, which had been scattered in the ordinary way; the second and larger portion, heterogeneous light having a mean refrangibility a good deal less than that of G, which had arisen from homogeneous light of higher refrangibility. The absence of the first occasioned the faint prolongation of the more refracted part of the line G; the absence of the second gave rise to the less refracted part.
92. The broad bands H were seen faintly but quite distinctly on the white paper. On refracting them sideways by a prism of moderate angle held to the eye, they became confused, arid tinged with prismatic colours. The confused images of these bands, seen in the white and coloured parts, were nearly continuous. It thus appears that the visibility of the bands H on the white paper was due to a change of refrangibility which that substance had produced in violet light of extreme refrangibility.
93. Effects similar to those produced by paper coloured by tincture of turmeric are also produced by turmeric powder, or even by the root merely broken across. Notwithstanding the roughness of the latter, the bands H and fixed lines far beyond are seen with the utmost facility.
94. These phenomena are much better observed by covering the slit with a deep blue glass, which absorbs all the bright part of the spectrum, while it freely transmits the violet arid invisible rays, which are mainly efficient in this class of phenomena. In