| RefNo | MS/242/45 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from William Hyde Wollaston to Thomas Young |
| Date | 22 November 1800 |
| Description | Autographed letter dated by postmark. Dated in letter as 'Friday eve?'
States Young must pardon him; the matter of fact is not a question with him and though he is grateful to Young for urging him to trace strictly its conformity with other facts, Wollaston declines being led any farther dance after phantoms. It is rather for Young who guesses that inconsistencies might be found, to spend what time he pleases in seeking them. States it would be more correct tosay he wishes it, than that he thinks it, on account of the dispersion of that stumbling block, the crystalline lens. On the perfection of which theologians and opticians are at present at variance unless aided by the adapting power of a little logic.
Begs Young to observe that Wollaston does not admit Newton's theory to be erroneous. Newton did not discover the fact that different bodies had different dispersive powers, and consequently erred in applying that theory equally to all bodies and assuming as true in one body what he found so in another; but so long as he confined his reasoning to any one body Wollaston maintains that he was right; and when at Young's requisisiton Wollaston applied the same reasoning and confined it also to one body he little expected to find that theory held to; for Young will observe that even upon the other hypothesis of equal velocities for the medium, if the medium remains the same then d consequently their relative attraction is in the same of proportion. Provides formula.
Notes a mistake in Young's former note. |
| Extent | 3p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA7947 | Young; Thomas (1773 - 1829); physician, physicist and Egyptologist | 1773 - 1829 |
| NA8298 | Wollaston; William Hyde (1766 - 1828); chemist, physicist and physiologist | 1766 - 1828 |