MEMOIRS 



OE THE 



LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



OF MANCHESTER. 



L — On the Ot'igin of Colour, and the Theory of Light. 

 By John Smith, M.A.^ Perth Academy. 



Eead October 4tli, 1859. 



PAET I. 



Of every science tlie elementary laws ought to be pro- 

 foundly studied and accurately known, but of none more 

 so than the science of light ; and yet perhaps there is no 

 physical science, whose laws, as at present interpreted, 

 give less satisfaction to the intelligent student of natural 

 philosophy. 



The theory of light as unfolded by Newton is a mathe- 

 matical description of a physical phenomenon, for the 

 arguments on which it is founded are derived chiefly 

 from the geometrical form taken by that phenomenon; 

 and the wave theory is little else than Newton^s theory 

 divested of the emission hypothesis. But to describe a 

 phenomenon geometrically is one thing, to investigate 



SER. III. VOL. I. B 



