144 Notices respecting New Books. 
fixed bodies they represent, they afford from analogy the following 
data as their comparative intensity of illumination. 
Red ray 9°364. Yellow 12°789. Blue 6-593. Violet 1-000. 
Light orange or deep yellow 11°647. Light green 10-719. The 
mean of the entire portion 1 1-076. 
The Galvanic phenomena among others support the conclu- 
sion, that the transition of matter to the radiant state of light is. 
effected by the combination of one atom of oxygen, by its po- 
sitive pole, in contact with the negative poles of one atom each, 
of azote, carbon, and hydrogen, and that the reversion to a fixt 
state, is produced by a combination of the same atoms in a re- 
fracted state principally by their opposite poles with bodies of 
fixed matter. 
The existence of an equilibrium as to such gradual transition 
and reversion of matter is not less consistent with its indestruc- 
tibility, than that already admitted in the daily formation of 
water, and the restoration, of that body to its original constituents 
in the gaseous state. 
Light is imperfect in colour and intensity, unless the presence 
of its four original constituents is evident, and nearly in the fol- 
lowing ratio : 
In volume, In weight, 
Red ray 16°250 Oxygen 55068 
Yellow  25°417 Azote 7°5366 
Blue 30°556 Carbon 3°6031 ’ 
Violet?) “293/17 Hydrogen 0°5880 
Parts 100-000 Grains 17:2345 
Except one, all solids, with which we are familiar, (the metals 
included,) all fluids, and the whole of the gases, (three only ex- 
cepted,) are compound bodies. 
The colour assumed by bodies in a liquid state, on addition of 
new constituents, is dependent on a change of position of the 
visible surfaces of their compound atoms, arising either from an 
extension of their spheres by the new acquisition, or a diminution 
in magnitude from abstraction of some portion of their original 
constituents, by which in either case a direct change as to po- 
larity is effected. This may be elucidated by demonstrating the 
nature of the action of an acid, or an alkali, on the blue colour 
of vegetable juices. 
The health and vigour of vegetative bodies, as well a8 the co- 
lours by which they are adorned, is principally attributable to the 
transition of radiant matter to a fixed state. 
As the erystalline forms assumed by bodies are governed by 
the number and position of the original constituents in their com- 
position, 
