本书出版于1690年，是惠更斯光学研究的重要著作，副标题是“其中解释了反射和折射，尤其是冰岛水晶的奇异折射发生的各种原因”。主要介绍了惠更斯所建立的光的波动学说，建立了著名的惠更斯原理。惠更斯原理是近代光学的一个重要基本理论。光的波动学说，打破了当时流行的光的微粒学说，在光学科学发展中产生了重大的影响。本书是根据Silvanus P. Thompson的1912年英译本重排。
- 前辅文
- CHAP. I. On Rays Propagated in Straight Lines.
- That Light is produced by a certain movement.
- That no substance passes from the luminous object to the eyes.
- That Light spreads spherically almost as Sound does.
- Whether Light takes time to spread.
- Experience seeming to prove that it passes instantaneously.
- Experience proving that it takes time.
- How much its speed is greater than that of Sound.
- In what the emission of Light differs from that of Sound.
- That it is not the same medium which serves for Light and Sound.
- How Sound is propagated.
- How Light is propagated.
- Detailed Remarks on the propagation of Light.
- Why Rays are propagated only in straight lines.
- How Light coming in different directions can cross itself.
- CHAP. II. On Reflexion.
- Demonstration of equality of angles of incidence and reflexion.
- Why the incident and reflected rays are in the same plane perpendicular to the reflecting surface.
- That it is not needful for the reflecting surface to be perfectly flat to attain equality of the angles of incidence and reflexion.
- CHAP. III. On Refraction.
- That bodies may be transparent without any substance passing through them.
- Proof that the ethereal matter passes through transparent bodies.
- How this matter passing through can render them transparent.
- That the most solid bodies in appearance are of a very loose texture.
- That Light spreads more slowly in water and in glass than in air.
- Third hypothesis to explain transparency, and the retardation which Light suffers.
- On that which makes bodies opaque.
- Demonstration why Refraction obeys the known proportion of Sines.
- Why the incident and refracted Rays produce one another reciprocally.
- Why Reflexion within a triangular glass prism is suddenly augmented when
- the Light can no longer penetrate.
- That bodies which cause greater Refraction also cause stronger Reflexion.
- Demonstration of the Theorem of Mr. Fermat.
- CHAP. IV. On the Refraction of the Air.
- That the emanations of Light in the air are not spherical.
- How consequently some objects appear higher than they are.
- How the Sun may appear on the Horizon before he has risen.
- That the rays of light become curved in the Air of the Atmosphere, and what effects this produces.
- CHAP. V. On the Strange Refraction of Iceland Crystal.
- That this Crystal grows also in other countries.
- Who first-wrote about it.
- Description of Iceland Crystal
- That it has two different Refractions.
- That the ray perpendicular to the surface suffers refraction, and that some rays inclined to the surface pass without suffering refraction.
- Observation of the refractions in this Crystal.
- That there is a Regular and an Irregular Refraction.
- The way of measuring the two Refractions of Iceland Crystal.
- Remarkable properties of the Irregular Refraction.
- Hypothesis to explain the double Refraction.
- That Rock Crystal has also a double Refraction.
- Hypothesis of emanations of Light, within Iceland Crystal, of spheroidal form, for the Irregular Refraction.
- How a perpendicular ray can suffer Refraction.
- How the position and form of the spheroidal emanations in this Crystal can be defined.
- Explanation of the Irregular Refraction by these spheroidal emanations.
- Easy way to find the Irregular Refraction of each incident ray.
- Demonstration of the oblique ray which traverses the Crystal without being refracted.
- Other irregularities of Refraction explained.
- That an object placed beneath the Crystal appears double, in two images of different heights.
- Why the apparent heights of one of the images change on changing the position of the eyes above the Crystal.
- Of the different sections of this Crystal which produce yet other refractions,and confirm all this Theory.
- Particular way of polishing the surfaces after it has been cut.
- Surprising phenomenon touching the rays which pass through two separated pieces
- Probable conjecture on the internal composition of Iceland Crystal, and of what figure its particles are.
- Tests to confirm this conjecture.
- Calculations which have been supposed in this Chapter.
- CHAP. VI. On the Figures of the Transparent Bodies Which Serve for Refraction and for Reflexion.
- General and easy rule to find these Figures.
- Invention of the Ovals of Mr. Des Cartes for Dioptrics.
- How he was able to find these Lines.
- Way of finding the surface of a glass for perfect refraction, when the other surface is given.
- Remark on what happens to rays refracted at a spherical surface.
- Remark on the curved line which is formed by reflexion in a spherical concave mirror.
- INDEX.
