Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/29

 to be a million times greater than it is. For explaining the phænomena of partial and total reflection, refraction, and inflection, nothing more is necessary than to suppose all refracting media to retain, by their attraction, a greater or less quantity of the luminous ether, so as to make its density greater than that which it possesses in a vacuum, without increasing its elasticity; and that light is a propagation of an impulse communicated to this ether by luminous bodies: whether this impulse is produced by a partial emanation of the ether, or by vibrations of the particles of the body, and whether these vibrations are, as supposed, of various and irregular magnitudes, or whether they are uniform, and comparatively large, remains to be hereafter determined. Now, as the direction of an impulse transmitted through a fluid, depends on that of the particles in synchronous motion, to which it is always perpendicular, whatever alters the direction of the pulse, will inflect the ray of light. If a smaller elastic body strike against a larger one, it is well known that the smaller is reflected more or less powerfully, according to the difference of their magnitudes: thus, there is always a reflection when the rays of light pass from a rarer to a denser stratum of ether; and frequently an echo when a sound strikes against a cloud. A greater body striking a smaller one, propels it, without losing all its motion: thus, the particles of a denser stratum of ether, do not impart the whole of their motion to a rarer, but, in their effort to proceed, they are recalled by the attraction of the refracting substance with equal force; and thus a reflection is always secondarily produced, when the rays of light pass from a denser to a rarer stratum. Let AB, Plate V. Fig. 29, be a ray of light falling on the reflecting surface FG; cd the direction of the vibration, pulse, impression, or conden-