AN EXPERIMENTAL TREATISE ON OPTICS, COMPREHENDING THE LEADING PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE, AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE MORE IMPORTANT AND CURIOUS OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS AND OPTICAL PHENOMENA, BEING THE THIRD PART OF A COURSE OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, COMPILED FOR THE USE OF THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE, NEW ENGLAND. BY JOHN FARRAR, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. CAMBRIDGE, N. E. PRINTED BY HILLIARD AND METCALF, At the University Press. SOLD BY W. HILLIARD, CAMBRIDGE, AND BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD, & CO. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT. Be it remembered, that on the seventh day of June, 1826, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, viz: "An Experimental Treatise on Optics, comprehending the Leading Principles of the Science, and an Explanation of the more important and curious Optical Instruments and Optical Phenomena, being the Third Part of a Course of Natural Philosophy, compiled for the use of the Students of the University at Cambridge, New England. By John Farrar, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled" An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to an act, entitled, " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching, historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. luti 515-42 416150 ADVERTISEMENT. THE body of this volume, like that of the preceding, was selected from Biot's Precis Elementaire de Physique Experimental. In an elementary course of Natural Philosophy the space alotted to Optics is too limited to admit of any thing like a complete treatise. The plan adopted by Biot in his smaller work has been highly approved, and seemed, on the whole, to be best suited to the state of information and wants of most learners. Reference is frequently made to the larger work of this distinguished philosopher for the algebraic formulas and more detailed information relating to the subject under discussion. The part upon the polarisation of light, amounting in the original to about one hundred and fifty pages, is omitted, as not comporting with the design and limits of the work, already perhaps too extended for the time appropriated to these studies. A brief account is given in a note of this new branch of Optics, drawn up by Biot himself, and appended to his translation of Fischer's Physique Mécanique. The other notes are intended to furnish information upon several other topics that have not found a place in the text. The parts of this course of Natural Philosophy already published are, a treatise upon Mechanics, and a trea + The original not being at hand, the compiler has made use of a translation, contained in Coddington's Optics. |