Note 205 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

Dr. Whewell, who has treated Descartes with marked injustice, does nevertheless allow that he is ‘the genuine author of the explanation of the rainbow.’ Hist. of the Induc. Sciences, vol. ii. pp. 380, 384. See also Boyle's Works, vol. iii. p. 189; Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society, p. 364; Hallam's Lit. of Europe, vol. iii. p. 205; Œuvres de Descartes, vol. i. pp. 47, 48, vol. v. pp. 265–284. On the theory of the rainbow as known in the present century, see Kaemtz, Course of Meteorology, pp. 440–445; and Forbes on Meteorology, pp. 125–130, in Report of British Association for 1840. Compare Leslie's Natural Philosophy, p. 531; Pouillet, Elémens de Physique, vol. ii. p. 788.