ON THE CHANGE OF HEFRANGIBILITY OF LIGHT. 405
Note I. Art. 213.
I have Hinco examined the salt, or product, whatever it may be, in the dry state, and under more favourable circumstances, and have found it sensitive, though not by any means in a high degree. It exhibits also the absorption bands which seem to run through the salts of peroxide of uranium.
In connexion with the insensibility of a solution of nitrate of uranium in ether, it seems interesting to mention a fact which I have since observed, namely, that the sensibility of a solution of nitrate of uranium in water is destroyed by the addition of a little alcohol.
Note J. Art. 217.
On repenting this experiment on a subsequent occasion, I could not satisfactorily make out the difference of character of a strong and of a weak spark from the prime conductor, perhaps because the machine was in less vigorous action; but the difference between the effects of a mere spark and of the discharge from a Leydeu jar was plainly evident. I would here warn the reader, that in order to perform the experiment in such a manner as to obtain a striking and perfectly decisive result, it is essential to employ an excessively weak solution. The reason of this is evident.
A severe thunder-storm which visited Cambridge on the evening1 of July 16, 1852, afforded me a good opportunity of observing the effect of lightning on a solution of quinine, and other sensitive media. From the copiousness of the dispersed light, it was evident that the proportion of the active, and therefore highly refrangible, rays to the visible rays was very far greater in the radiation from lightning than in daylight. A difference of character was observed between the effects of a weak distant flash, and of a bright flash nearly overhead, similar to that which has been described with reference to the effects of a spark from a machine, and of the discharge from a Leyden jar. In artificial discharges, the stronger the spark the more the rays of excessively high refrangibility seem to abound, in proportion to the whole radiation. Now a flash of lightning is a discharge