PRODUCED BY ELECTRO-CHEMICAL ACTION. 99 



of smoke result from the more or less thorough blending of the blond 

 and the tawny; those oi fire from Nos. 8, 9, and 10; the deep blue 

 is produced by the Nos. 10, 11, 12, which are the deepest tints of the 

 scale. 



The first blond is properly that of light hair in childhood, and it is 

 a fact worthy of remark, that as children grow older it becomes pro- 

 gressively deeper and deeper, in the order of the Nos. 2, 3, 4 in the 

 scale. The perfect resemblance of the first tints on the scale to those 

 which we observe about the moon when she is surrounded by clouds 

 is equally remarkable : it seems in fact that this luminous appearance 

 may be thus definitively explained. Tints of this kind do not arise from 

 refraction and diffraction ; they are produced only by means of thin 

 plates : the luminous halo in question is therefore a pheenomenon pro- 

 duced by thin plates. 



This observation, combined with the fact that the tints exhibited by 

 the clouds in every variety of aspect are almost all comprised in the first 

 ring, leads to another consequence relative to the constitution of vesicular 

 vapours. The measurements and experiments of Newton have shown 

 what are the dimensions of the layers of air, of water, and of glass, which 

 produce the colours of the several rings. The red of No. 10 is the last 

 tint of the first ring : the indigo (No. 12) belongs to the second, and 

 the thickness of the layer of water which produces it by reflexion is 

 about the ten-millionth part of an English inch. As we know then, on 

 the one hand, that the vesicular vapours are formed of water, and on the 

 other that they do not reflect or transmit any tint beyond No. 12, we 

 may conclude that their external film is in no case thicker than the 

 ten-millionth part of an inch. 



This result appears to me so decidedly certain as to be entitled to a 

 place in science. 



Second Ring. — From No. II to No. 28 (incltisive). 



This interval commences at the deep violet No. 1 1, and extends to the 

 lake-red No. 28. It comprises the most beautiful of all the gradations ; 

 namely, 



JBlue, Azure, Yellow, Orange, Red. 



Newton places a green tint between the azure and the yellow. My 

 scale exhibits no trace of green, and, with whatever attention I have 

 examined Newton's second ring, I have never been able to perceive, in 

 the place where the green should be found, anything but white tinged 

 with azure and answering to the Nos. 15, 16, 17 of my scale. It is 

 true that in the solar spectrum we meet with green in passing from 

 the l)lue to the yellow : but the colours of the prism are simple, those 

 of the thin plates are compound, and the order of their succession re- 



H 2 



