XVIII.
The Nature of Light,
WITH A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF PHYSICAL OPTICS.
By Dr. EUGENE LOMMEL
(University of Erlangen).
1 vol., 12mo. Cloth.Price, $2.00.
“In the present treatise, Professor Lommel has given an admirable outline of the nature of light and the laws of optics.
“Unlike most other writers on this subject, the author has, we think, wisely postponed all reference to theories of the nature of light, until the laws of reflection, refraction, and absorption, have been clearly set before the reader. Then, in the fifteenth chapter, Professor Lommel discusses Fresnel’s famous interference experiment, and leads the reader to see that the undulatory theory is the only conclusion that can be satisfactorily arrived at. A clear exposition is now given of Huyghen’s theory, after which follow several chapters on the diffraction and polarization of light-bearing waves.
“The reader is thus led onward much in the same way as the science itself has unfolded, and this, we think, is the surest and best way of teaching natural knowledge.