II. Researches towards establishing a theory of the dispersion of light. No. III

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Abstract
In two former portions of researches on the subject of dispersion, I have discussed all the observed refractive indices for definite rays, in different media, which had come to my knowledge; consisting of those for ten media determined by Fraunhofer, and those in ten other cases by M. Rudberg, comparing them with the calculated results of the theory of M. Cauchy; and the agreement is sufficiently close. In those papers, and elsewhere, I have remarked the importance of extending the in­quiry, especially to media of higher dispersive power; in which cases (as appears from the nature of the formula) the theory would be put to a more precise test. In the former instances the work of determining the indices was done to my hands, and I could proceed to the theoretical computations with the most perfect confidence in the accuracy of experimental data, furnished from the labours of observers so well known for precision and skill, and obtained, too, before the formula of theory had been deduced.

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