ON THE CHANGE OF REFRA.NGIBILITY OF LIGHT. 381
me to try whether anything of the kind could be perceived in the case of internal dispersion. The following arrangement was adopted for putting this question to the test of experiment.
A tumbler was filled with a very dilute solution of sulphate of quinine, and placed in a pure spectrum. As usual, the illuminated portion of the fluid consisted of two distinct parts, one the blue beam of truly dispersed light, corresponding to the highly refrangible rays, the other the beam reflected from motes, exhibiting the usual prismatic colours, and corresponding to the brighter of the visible rays. The fluid was nearly free from motes, so that the first beam was by far the brighter of the two; and the second beam, without being bright enough at all to interfere with the observation, was useful as serving to point out where the red, yellow, &c, rays lay. A flat prism, having an angle of about 130°, was then held in front of the vessel, with its edge vertical, and situated in the more refrangible part of the visible rays. The rays forming the two beams were thus bent in opposite directions, and the beams made to cross each other within the fluid; and by turning the prism a little in both directions in azimuth, that is, round an axis parallel to the incident rays, it was easy to make sure, that, the beams did actually cross. But not the slightest perceptible difference in the blue beam was made by the passage of the red and other lowly refrangible rays across it.
2Hi. Certain theoretical views having led me to regard it as doubtful whether the intensity of light internally dispersed was proportional to the intensity of the incident rays, other circumstances being the same, I was induced to try the following experiment,.
The sun's light was reflected horizontally through a large lens, which was covered by a screen containing two moderately large round holes, situated in the same horizontal plane, and a good distance apart. The beams coming through the two holes convened of eourse towards the focus of the lens, and at the same
j—>
time contracted in width, and became brighter from the concentration of the light. For our present purpose, they may be regarded as cylindrical beams converging towards the focus of the lens. When they had approached each other sufficiently, they were transmitted through a blue ammoniacal solution of