Abstract
III. BEFORE proceeding with new parts of this subject, I wish to say a few words about “fiddling while Rome is burning.” Sir William Thomson writes to me that the expression was used while discussing some mathematical triviality, and he wishes to be relieved of the imputation of speaking disrespectfully of anomalous dispersion, which he says is quite as important as double refraction. I grant this, but my interpretation of his language when I heard the lecture was that so many possible ways had been shown of explaining anomalous dispersion that it was mere child's play (or fiddle-playing) to discuss it while the burning question of double refraction awaited ex planation, upon which question seems to depend the whole safety of the wave-theory of light, that theory being in imminent danger of destruction therefrom.
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FORBES, G. Sir William Thomson on Molecular Dynamics 1 . Nature 31, 601–603 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/031601c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031601c0