| Description | Letter dated 'Monday evening 17th'
Wollaston would have been glad to have met Young and his accusation, but he was busy and the hour passed by unobserved.
Wollaston might in true Billingsgate style have been recriminated by saying that Young's infidelity savours of Judas, but would rather refute the charge of Jesuitical reservation.
Asks Young to give Wollaston credit for a decent share of ignorance and a consummate share of variety there will then appear little opportunity and still less desire to withold what Wollaston knows.
States the fact is that however ready to communicate any decisive observation or decided opinion, he is certainly at all times very reluctant to utter and still more so to publish any mere conjecture.
Young may try to pump him but Young cannot exhaust him beyond a vacuum.
Discusses three points Young had raised;
1. Ramsden's opinion of dispersion (which he considers wrong)
2. The non-dispersion of the fixed stars
3. The comparative variation of dispersion and refrction.
Includes diagram. |