THE 



LONDON and EDINBURGH 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



+. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



NOVEMBER 1834. 



XLIV. Experiments on Light*. By H. F. Talbot, Esq., 

 M.P.,F.R.S. 



§ 1 . Microscopic Appearances with Polarized Light. 



\ MONG the very numerous attempts which have been 

 £*■ made of late years to improve the microscope, I am not 

 aware that it has yet been proposed to illuminate the objects 

 with polarized light. 



But as such an idea is sufficiently simple and obvious, it is 

 possible that some experiments of this kind may have been 

 published, although I am not acquainted with them. I have 

 lately made this branch of optics a subject of inquiry, and 

 I have found it so rich in beautiful results as entirely to sur- 

 pass my expectations. 



As little else is requisite to repeat the experiments which 

 I am about to mention than the possession of a good micro- 

 scope, I think that in describing them I shall render a service 

 to that numerous class of inquirers into nature, who are de- 

 sirous of witnessing some of the most brilliant of optical phe- 

 nomena without the embarrassment of having to manage any 

 large or complicated apparatus. And it cannot be without in- 

 terest for the physiologist and natural historian to present him 

 with a method of microscopic inquiry, which exhibits objects 

 in so peculiar a manner that nothing resembling it can be 

 produced by any arrangements of the ordinary kind. 



In order to view objects by polarized light, I place upon 



* A paper read to the Royal Society, July 1834. 

 Third Series. Vol. 5. No. 29. Nov. 1 834. 2 T 



