A new Theory of Light. 421 
opacity or blackness of the one by successive layers of 
white paper, the fringe of reflected rays should be lighter, 
as the rays, instead of being reflected, would be absorbed. 
But in full confirmation of my own theory, every layer of 
avhite paper that I pasted on increased the depth of colour 
in the fringe of blue, red, and yellow, until at length the 
paper appeared perfectly black, and then the fringe was a 
deep indigo, red, and yellow. From this experiment, which 
is simple and conclusive, we must infer that, in proportion 
a a body becomes dark, it reflects the more condensed 
ight. 
p ay 5.—I made two dots about the size of a 
garden pea, the one of black, the other of white paint, on 
a sheet of white paper. On applying a prism according to 
Sir Isaac Newton’s theory, I might expect that the white 
painted spot, which appeared of a light gray, would have 
reflected a much deeper fringe of colours than the black, 
because it should reflect not only its own colours, but also 
the borrowed colours of the white illuminated paper ; 
whereas, on the other hand, the black spot, absorbing the 
rays of light, should only bring into view the pale tints of 
the illuminated paper, spreading (according to the words of 
Sir Isaac Newton) into the regions of the black, a non- 
entity*. But, oneapplying my prism, I found the reverse. 
The black reflected a beautiful deep indigo, red, and yellow ; 
the white spot only reflected a very pale tinge of blue, red, 
and yellow. The fringe reflected from the black was ex- 
actly similar to that reflected from the opake white paper 
on the window. 
From these experiments, and many others which the 
shortness of this communication will not allow me to enu- 
merate, I venture to conclude, that blackness, or darkness, 
arises from the condensed reflection of indigo and orange, 
which I look on as the only primary colours, which being 
blended in different proportions form ‘the five others, 
Thus black and white are produced by the reflection of the 
. Same colours in different quantities; and I hope, in my 
next communicati6n, to be enabled to prove by experiments, 
that there is no absorption of the rays of light in the re- 
flection of any colour, It often occurred to me, that how- 
ever beautiful the Newtonian theory of light, it was inade- 
quate to account why a candle placed in a room entirely 
* How is it possille. that a negative property should produce a positive 
effect ? or how could black, anon-entity, act like a prism to separate white 
hight into its primary colours ? 
Dd3 ; lined 
