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The first section of this paper is devoted to the optical properties peculiar to mother-of-pearl; the second to the communication of these properties to other bodies; the third to the consideration of the cause of these phenomena; and the fourth to the description of the peculiar species of polarization produced by this substance. Dr. Brewster observes, mother-of-pearl is composed of laminae, much resembling in their arrangement those of the agate; that when it is imperfectly polished, a coloured image of a candle is seen in it by reflection in the neighbourhood of the common image, having its blue extremity towards this image, and being always situated, with respect to it, in the direction of an axis of extraordinary reflection, the angular distance varying with the inclination and situation of the rays, and being also different in magnitude in different specimens, but always observing certain laws. There is also a mass of coloured light, crimson at great angles of incidence, and green at smaller, beyond the regular coloured image, its distance varying according to a different law; becoming brighter when the substance is polished, and varying also with its thickness. Similar appearances are observed in a surface obtained by fracture; but a higher polish produces a new coloured image on the opposite side of the common image, and nearly as bright as the former, which is rendered somewhat less brilliant by the operation of polishing. Similar appearances, but somewhat less distinct, are observed when a candle is viewed through a thin piece of mother-of-pearl; and it is remarkable, that the image which is the brighter when seen by reflection, is the less bright when seen by transmission. When the opposite surfaces happen to have different axes of extraordinary reflection, they produce the appearance of four images in the transmitted light.

abstracts of the papers printed in the philosophical transactions of the royal society of london

On new properties of light exhibited in the optical phenomena of mother-of-pearl, and other bodies to which the superficial structure of that substance can be communicated. By David Brewster, LL. D . F. R. S. Edin. and F. S. A. Ed. In a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S