64 



POLARISATION OF LIGHT. 



Conclusion. 



WE have thus endeavoured to lay be- 

 fore the reader a general view of the 

 facts and laws which constitute this new 

 and curious branch of Optical Science. 

 In so far as the exclusion of mathemati- 

 cal illustration can accomplish it, these 

 treatises will be sufficiently intelligible 

 to ordinary readers ; though the author 

 feels that the subject is susceptible of 

 being treated in a still more popular 

 form. This, however, could only have 

 been accomplished, either by diffuse 

 illustration totally incompatible with 

 limitation of space, or by an imperfect 

 view of the subject, which would have 

 excited, without gratifying, scientific cu- 

 riosity. His object has, therefore, been 



to condense into two Treatises the most 

 important phenomena, and to explain 

 them with as much perspicuity as he 

 could, within such narrow limits. 



Those who wish to study the subject 

 more deeply are referred to Biot's Traitc 

 de Physique, torn. iv. ; the article OP- 

 TICS in Dr. Brewster's Encyclopedia; 

 the Art. POLARISATION in the Supple- 

 ment to the Ency. Brit.; Mr.Herschel's 

 Treatise on Light ; and to the various 

 papers published by Dr. Brewster in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, from 1813 

 to 1819; in the Edinburgh Transac- 

 tions, vols.vii. viii. ix. and x.; and in 

 different Numbers of the Edinburgh 

 Journal of Science. 



