THEORY OF LIGHT. 



1. THAT light is a ternary compound, composed of the three 

 simple elementary principles, or undecompounded constituents 

 of matter, of which all other bodies in nature are formed. 



2. By the convex lenticular prism of Field, light flowing 

 from an emanating point or luminous body, as the sun, 

 exhibits the three original colored rays of the spectrum, the 

 red, yellow, and blue, from which all other shades of color are 

 composed. 



3. That such prismatic divisions of the elements of light 

 determine the identity of its constituents into 



The Red Ray ; The Yellow Ray ; And the Blue Ray ; 



Oxygen. . Nitrogen. Hydrogen. 



That the three primary colored rays possess peculiarly dis- 

 tinct and countervailing qualities, and on the proportions in 

 Avhich they are combined in matter, and the nature of the 

 polarity exercised in their combination, the specific properties 

 of the material compounds they produce are dependent. 



4. That light combines with inert or fixed matter, not 

 specifically or bodily, but partially, by the absorption of its 

 individual or separate rays, electively, from existing laws of 

 attraction, and such transition of the elements of light is as 

 constant and unceasing as the reconversion of tangible or 

 fixed matter is evidently continuous to the state of radiancy, 

 or light. 



5. That such changes of form are reciprocally exercised, and 

 effect a complete and perfect equilibrium in the operations of 

 nature, the supply in both cases being correspondent with, and 

 governed by, the necessity, or consumption. All solids with 

 which we are familiar, (the metals included,) all fluids, and the 

 whole of the gases, three only excepted, ARE COMPOUND BODIES. 



