126 APPENDIX. 



The first four* primary coloured rays possess peculiarly distinct and 

 countervailing qualities, and on the proportions in which they are com- 

 bined in matter, and the nature of the polarity exercised in their combi- 

 nation, its specific properties are totally dependent. 



The ray, or the first portion of the spectrum, possesses (as has been 

 already proved by an authority of great eminence) oxydating and 

 acidifying powers, and is here termed the oxygenating ray. 



The second, or yellow ray, displays qualities which pertain to the 

 nitrogenous and alkalescent, and is therefore denominated the azotic ray. 



The third, or blue ray, is distinguished by its analogy to carbon f , 

 and is here considered the carbonic ray. 



And the fourth, or violet ray, is admitted to possess the dispositions 

 of hydrogen, which entitle it to the appellation of the hydrogenating 

 ray. 



1 . Light combines with inert or fixed matter, not specifically or bodily, 

 but partially by absorption of its individual or separate rays, electively 

 combined, from certain existing laws of attraction ; and from the colour 

 of fixed bodies, or that of their solution in menstrua of known constitu- 

 tion, or of their flame in combustion, the predominating original or 

 simple elementary rays in their composition may be defined. 



Caloric influences the combination of refracted light, with fixed or 

 palpable matter, when at a temperature not exceeding from 800 to 

 900 of Fahrenheit, but affects the restoration of matter to the radiant 

 state of light, when elevated to 1000 and upwards. 



2. The repulsive power evinced by the particles or corpuscular atoms 

 of light towards each other (when their active poles or those they 

 exercise in the aggregate are paralyzed), is influenced by the peculiar 

 nature of their individual polarity, being tertiary compounds, of a 

 spherical form, combined by one positive and two negative poles at 

 their centre, and therefore exhibiting on their external surfaces three 

 positive poles at such angles as to act with repulsion on liberation from 

 the influence of pressure, or that propelling power which emanates from 

 the radiating point on which the visibility of light depends. See Jig. 2, 

 plate \st. 



The greater illuminating power of that portion of the spectrum em- 

 bracing the lighter green and deeper yellow, may depend on the higher 

 specific gravity of those rays, as by multiplying their given relative 



* Three by new Theory. 



t Carbon excluded in the corrected Theory. 



