Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/679

Rh from its back, and again refracted on their emergence. Descartes was acquainted with the law of Snell, and, taking up his pen, he calculated, by means of that law, the whole course of the rays. He proved that the vast majority of them escaped from the drop as divergent rays, and, on this account, soon became so enfeebled as to produce no sensible effect upon the eye of an observer. At one particular angle, however—namely, the angle 41° aforesaid—they emerged in a practically parallel sheaf. In their union was strength, for it was this particular sheaf which carried the light of the "primary" rainbow to the eye.

There is a certain form of emotion called intellectual pleasure, which may be excited by poetry, literature, nature, or art. But I doubt whether among the pleasures of the intellect there is any more pure and concentrated than that experienced by the scientific man when a difficulty which has challenged the human mind for ages melts before his eyes, and recrystallizes as an illustration of natural law. This pleasure was doubtless experienced by Descartes when he succeeded in placing upon its true physical basis the most splendid meteor of our atmosphere. Descartes showed, moreover, that the "secondary bow" was produced when the rays of light underwent two reflections within the drop, and two refractions at the points of incidence and emergence.

It is said that Descartes behaved ungenerously to Snell—that, though acquainted with the unpublished papers of the learned Dutchman, he failed to acknowledge his indebtedness. On this I will not dwell, for I notice on the part of the public a tendency, at all events in some cases, to emphasize such short-comings. The temporary weakness of a great man is often taken as a sample of his whole character. The spot upon the sun usurps the place of his "surpassing glory." This is not unfrequent, but it is nevertheless unfair.

Descartes proved that, according to the principles of refraction, a circular band of light must appear in the heavens exactly where the rainbow is seen. But how are the colors of the bow to be accounted for? Here his penetrative mind came to the very verge of the solution, but the limits of knowledge at the time barred his further progress. He connected the colors of the rainbow with those produced by a prism; but then these latter needed explanation just as much as the colors of the bow itself. The solution, indeed, was not possible until the composite nature of white light had been demonstrated by Newton. Applying the law of Snell to the different colors of the spectrum, Newton proved that the primary bow must consist of a series of concentric circular bands, the largest of which is red, and the smallest violet; while in the secondary bow these colors must be reversed. The main secret of the rainbow, if I may use such language, was thus revealed.

I have said that each color of the rainbow is carried to the eye by