Abstract
THIS is the first half of a very elaborate treatise on optics, the full scope of which we cannot tell till the second volume appears, as no hint is given of what is yet to come. This first volume begins with the fundamental principles of the wave-theory of light, deduces from them the elementary laws of geometrical optics, discusses the properties of a co-axal system of refracting surfaces, describes the structure of the eye, expounds the facts of colour-mixture, points out the conditions which determine the resolving power of a telescope, develops at great length the theories of diffraction and interference, with some of their principal applications, and devotes about 8o pages to polarization and double refraction. There is practically nothing about the microscope, and nothing at all about the paths of rays in media of continuously varying density.
Traité d'Optique.
Par M. E. Mascart. Tome I. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1889.)
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EVERETT, J. Traité d'Optique. Nature 41, 224 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/041224a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/041224a0