of ponderable matter, and that the amount of dispersion depends on the ratio of the wave-length to the distance between adjacent molecules. This hypothesis was, however, seen to be inadequate, when, in 1862, F. P. Leroux[1] found that a prism filled with the vapour of iodine refracted the red rays to a greater degree than the blue rays; for in all theories which depend on the assumption of a coarse-grained lumini. ferous medium,, the refractive index increases with the frequency of the light.
Leroux's phenomenon, to which the name anomalous dispersion was given, was shown by later investigators[2] to be generally associated with "surface-colour," i.e., the property of brilliantly reflecting incident light of some particular frequency. Such an association seemed to indicate that the dispersive property of a substance is intimately connected with a certain frequency of vibration which is peculiar to that substance, and which, when it happens to fall within the limits of the visible spectrum, is apparent in the surface-colour. This idea of a frequency of vibration peculiar to each kind of ponderable. matter is found in the writings of Stokes as far back as the year 1852;[3] when, discussing fluorescence, he remarked:—"Nothing seems more natural than to suppose that the incident vibrations of the luminiferous aether produce vibratory movements among the ultimate molecules of sensitive substances, and that the molecules in turn, swinging on their own account, produce vibrations in the luminiferous aether, and thus cause the sensation of light. The periodic times of these vibrations depend on the periods in which the molecules are disposed to swing, not upon the periodic time of the incident vibrations."
The principle here introduced, of considering the molecules as dynamical systems which possess natural free periods, and which interact with the incident vibrations, lies at the basis of
- ↑ Comptes Rendus, ly (1862), p. 126. In 1870 C. Christiansen (Ann. d. Phys. exli, p. 479; cxliii, p. 250) observed a similar effect in a solution of fuchsin.
- ↑ Especially by Kundt, in a series of papers in the analen d. Phys., from vol. cxlii (1871) onwards.
- ↑ Phil. 'Trans., 1852, p. 463. Stokes's Coll. Papers, iii., p. 267.
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