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X. Experiments and Observations on the Inflection , Reflection , 
Colours of Light. By Henry Brougham Jim. Esq. 
Communicated by Sir Charles Blagden, Knt. Sec. R. S. 
Read January 28, 1796. 
It has always appeared wonderful to me, since nature seems 
to delight in those close analogies which enable her to pre- 
serve simplicity and even uniformity in variety, that there 
should be no dispositions in the parts of light, with respect to 
inflection and reflection, analogous or similar to their different 
refrangibility. In order to ascertain the existence of such pro- 
perties, I began a course of experiments and observations, a 
short account of which forms the substance of this paper. 
For the sake of perspicuity I shall begin with the analytical 
branch of the subject, comprehending my observations under 
two parts : flexion , or the bending of the rays in their passage 
by bodies, and reflection. And I shall conclude by applying 
the principles there established to the explanation of phseno- 
mena, in the way of synthesis. 
As in every experimental inquiry much depends on the at- 
tention paid to the minutest circumstances, in justice to myself 
I ought to mention, that each experiment was set down as par- 
ticularly as possible immediately after it was made ; that they 
were all repeated every favourable day for nearly a year, and 
before various persons ; and as any thing like a preconceived 
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