物件 78 - Letter from David Brewster

4 pp

Allerly by Melrose - DB is 'much obliged to you for your account of Goethe's theory of refraction, and I cannot conceive how a man in a sane state of mind could publish such nonsense'. DB will be happy to publish WW's observations on Dr Lardner's [Dionysius Lardner] Mechanics. Pleased to hear George Airy is giving lectures on polarisation. DB is working hard on this subject: 'I have discussed the mathematical law which expresses the quantity of light polarised either by reflexion or refraction of any angle of incidence', and a new phenomena of polarisation he calls 'Elliptical'. DB thinks he has proved that 'pressure is the cause of double refraction in regular crystals'.