Traité de la lumière e' del 1690
TREATISE
O N L I G H T
In which are explained
The causes of that which occurs
In REFLEXION, & in REFRACTION.
And particularly
In the strange REFRACTION
OF ICELAND CRYSTAL
By CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS.
Rendered into English
By SILVANUS P. THOMPSON.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
MCMXII.
NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
CONSIDERING the great influence which this Treatise has exercised in the development of the Science of Optics, it seems strange that two centuries should have passed before an English edition of the work appeared. Perhaps the circumstance is due to the mistaken zeal with which formerly everything that conflicted with the cherished ideas of Newton was denounced by his followers. The Treatise on Light of Huygens has, however, withstood the test of time: and even now the exquisite skill with which he applied his conception of the propagation of waves of light to unravel the intricacies of the phenomena of the double refraftion of crystals, and of the refraction of the atmosphere, will excite the admiration of the student of Optics. It is true that his wave theory was far from the complete doctrine as subsequently developed by Thomas Young and Augustin Fresnel, and belonged rather to geometrical than to physical Optics. If Huygens had no conception of transverse vibrations, of the principle of interference, or of the existence of the ordered sequence of waves in trains, he nevertheless attained to a remarkably clear understanding of the principles of wave-propagation; and his exposition of the subject marks an epoch in the treatment of Optical problems. It has been needful in preparing this translation to exercise care lest one should import into the author's text ideas of subsequent date, by using words that have come to imply modern conceptions. Hence the adoption of as literal a rendering as possible. A few of the author's terms need explanation, He uses the word "refraction," for example, both for the phenomenon or process usually so denoted, and for the result of that process: thus the refraCted ray he habitually terms "the refraction " of the incident ray. When a wave-front, or, as he terms it, a "wave", has passed from some initial position to a subsequent one, he terms the wave-front in its subsequent position "the continuation" of the wave. He also speaks of the envelope of a set of elementary waves, formed by coalescence of those elementary wave-fronts, as "the termination" of the wave; and the elementary wave-fronts he terms "particular" waves. Owing to the circumstance that the French word rayon possesses the double signification of ray of light and radius of a circle, he avoids its use in the latter sense and speaks always of the semidiameter, not of the radius. His speculations as to the ether, his suggestive views of the structure of crystalline bodies, and his explanation of opacity, slight as they are, will possibly surprise the reader by their seeming modernness. And none can read his investigation of the phenomena found in Iceland spar without marvelling at his insight and sagacity.
S. P. T.
June, 1912.
ref: treatise on light by Christiaan Huygens
wp/Fermat's_principle#Equivalence_to_Huygens'_construction