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Lange Review Ultrasonography Examination 4th Edition
Charles S. Odwin Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Charles S. Odwin, Arthur C. Fleischer
ISBN(s): 9780071703147, 0071703144
Edition: 4
File Details: PDF, 64.38 MB
Year: 2012
Language: english
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 Dedication

(Donna preparing for her lecture in the Mid 1990s

in Florida. The little square objects that she is
handling are slides. Photo courtesy of A.C. Fleischer.)

I would like to acknowledge the pride, professionalism, and enthusiasm of the late Donna Kepple,
RT, RDMS, by dedicating this 4th edition of Lange Review: Ultrasonography Examination in her
memory. Ms. Kepple was a prime example of how a caring and compassionate professional could
combine technical expertise in sonography to enhance a patient’s life and those that worked and
interacted with her. Beginning in the early 1980s, Donna was one of the first students to graduate from
our first Sonographer Training Program and then continue to excel at the local and national meetings.
She touched not only her patients’ lives, but those residents, medical students, and fellow
sonographers nationwide that she came in contact with. She was a superb teacher, acting not only as
Chief Sonographer for 18 years but was Program Director of our first “Era” of our sonography
training program in 1982-1986. She was also involved in many sonographic societies, serving as an
officer and in the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) and American
Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), being recognized as “Sonographer of the Year” by
AIUM 1996.

She exemplifies the impact of a dedicated, caring, and compassionate professional. On a lighter note
she always insisted on being referred to as “sonographer” rather than “ultrasound technician.” She
leaves pleasant thoughts to those that knew her and an example of the impact that a committed medical
professional can impart both to her patients and fellow professionals every day.
Contents

Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments

Section I: Fundamentals

Chapter 1 Sonography: Principles, Techniques, and Instrumentation

Charles S. Odwin, Ronald R. Price, and Arthur C. Fleischer
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Section II: Echocardiography

Chapter 2 Adult Echocardiography

Mark N. Allen and Carol A. Krebs

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 3 Pediatric Echocardiography

David A. Parra
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Section III: General Sonography Applications

Chapter 4 Abdominal Sonography

Charles S. Odwin and Arthur C. Fleischer

Study Guide
Questions
Case Studies
 Answers and Explanations
Case Studies Answer Sheet

Chapter 5 Sonography of the Thyroid and Scrotum

Arthur C. Fleischer and Charles S. Odwin

Study Guide
Questions
Case Studies
Answers and Explanations
Case Studies Answer Sheet

Chapter 6 Endorectal Prostate Sonography

Dunstan Abraham
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Section IV: Sonography in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Chapter 7 Obstetrical and Gynecologic Sonography and Transvaginal Sonography

Charles S. Odwin, Cynthia A. Silkowski, and Arthur C. Fleischer

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 8 3D Obstetric and Gynecologic Sonography: An Illustrative Overview

Arthur C. Fleischer
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 9 Fetal Echocardiography

Teresa M. Bieker
Study Guide
 Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 10 Breast Sonography

Lawrence E. Mason
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Section V: Vascular Sonography

Chapter 11 Abdominal Vascular Sonography

Marsha M. Neumyer
Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 12 Cerebrovascular Sonography

George L. Berdejo, Joshua Cruz, Fernando Amador, and Evan C. Lipsitz

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 13 Sonography of the Peripheral Veins

George L. Berdejo, Joshua Cruz, and Evan C. Lipsitz

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 14 Peripheral Arterial Sonography

George L. Berdejo, Fernando Amador, Joshua Cruz, and Evan C. Lipsitz

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations
Section VI: Miscellaneous Applications

Chapter 15 Neurosonology

Charles S. Odwin and Chandrowti Devi Persaud

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Chapter 16 Musculoskeletal Ultrasound

Amy E. Wilkinson and Ronald S. Adler

Study Guide
Questions
Answers and Explanations

Index
Contributors

Dunstan Abraham, MPH, PA-C, RDMS

Physician Assistant
Department of Surgery, Division of Urology
Lincoln Hospital and Medical Center
Bronx, New York
Clinical Instructor
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
School of Health Related Professions
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Endorectal Prostate Sonography

Ronald S. Adler, MD, PhD

Chief, Division of Ultrasound and Body Imaging
Department of Radiology and Imaging
Professor of Radiology
Weil Medical College of Cornell University
Hospital for Special Surgery
New York, New York
Musculoskeletal Ultrasound

Mark N. Allen, MBA, RDMS, RDSC, RVT

Senior Clinical Sales Specialist
Siemens Medical
Mountain View, California

Adult Echocardiography

Fernando Amador, RVT

Technical Director
Vascular Laboratory
Moses Division, Montefiore
New York, New York

Cerebrovascular Sonography
Peripheral Arterial Sonography

George L. Berdejo, BA, FSVS, RVT

Director, Vascular Ultrasound Services
Vascular Ultrasound Laboratory
Moses, North and Weiler Divisions of Montefiore
Bronx, New York

Cerebrovascular Sonography
Sonography of the Peripheral Veins
Peripheral Arterial Sonography

Teresa M. Bieker, MBA, RDCS, RDMS, RT, RVT

Lead Sonographer
Division of Ultrasound
University of Colorado Hospital
Denver, Colorado

Fetal Echocardiography

Joshua Cruz, RVT

Vascular Lab Manager
Heart and Vascular Center
Yale New Haven Hospital
New Haven, Connecticut

Cerebrovascular Sonography
Sonography of the Peripheral Veins
Peripheral Arterial Sonography

Arthur C. Fleischer, MD
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Chief, Diagnostic Sonography
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee

Sonography: Principles, Techniques, and Instrumentation

Abdominal Sonography
Sonography of the Thyroid and Scrotum
Obstetrical and Gynecologic Sonography and Transvaginal Sonography
3D Obstetric and Gynecologic Sonography: An Illustrative Overview

Carol A. Krebs, RT, RDMS, RVT

Ultrasound Consultant
Shreveport, Louisiana

Adult Echocardiography

Evan C. Lipsitz, MD
Associate Professor of Surgery
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Chief, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Medical Director, Vascular Diagnostic Laboratory
Moses Division, Montefiore
New York, New York

Cerebrovascular Sonography
Sonography of the Peripheral Veins
Peripheral Arterial Sonography

Lawrence E. Mason, MD
Director of Women’s Imaging
Xray Associates of Louisville, LLC
Baptist Hospital East
Louisville, Kentucky

Breast Sonography

Marsha M. Neumyer, BS, FAIUM, FSDMS, FSVU, RVT

International Director
Vascular Diagnostic Educational Services
Vascular Resource Associates
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Abdominal Vascular Sonography

Charles S. Odwin, BS, RT, PA-C, RDMS

Ultrasound Technical Consultant, Women’s Health
Physician Assistant, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
North Central Bronx Hospital
Clinical Instructor, Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program
Jacobi Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center
Bronx, New York
Clinical Instructor, Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
School of Allied Health Professionals
Newark, New Jersey

Sonography: Principles, Techniques, and Instrumentation

Abdominal Sonography
Sonography: of the Thyroid and Scrotum
Obstetrical and Gynecologic Sonography and Transvaginal Sonography Neurosonology

David A. Parra, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Cardiology
Vanderbilt School of Medicine
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
Nashville, Tennessee

Pediatric Echocardiography

Chandrowti Devi Persaud, RT, PA-C, RDCS, RDMS

Physician Assistant
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center
Bronx, New York

Neurosonology

Ronald R. Price, PhD

Director, Radiologic Sciences Division
Department of Radiology
Vanderbilt University, School of Medicine
Nashville, Tennessee

Sonography: Principles, Techniques, and Instrumentation

Cynthia A. Silkowski, MA, RVT, RDMS

Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Medical Imaging Sciences
Director, Diagnostic Medical Sonography
School of Health Related Professions, Newark, New Jersey
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey

Obstetrical and Gynecologic Sonography and Transvaginal Sonography

Amy E. Wilkinson, AMS, RDMS

Preceptor
Department of Radiology and Imaging
Academic Center for Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
The Hospital for Special Surgery
New York, New York

Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
Preface
Since publication of the 3rd edition of Appleton and Lange’s Review for the Ultrasonography
Examination, there have been many additional refinements in applications sonography. Foremost
among these are 3D sonography, Doppler techniques, and musculoskeletal sonography. This new and
updated 4th edition contains chapters including these topics.
The continuous expansion of sonographic techniques and clinical applications requires that
sonographers continually update and expand their clinical skills. Sonographers now routinely perform
3D sonography, duplex and color Doppler studies, and detailed examination of the fetus and pelvic
organs, and they provide vitally important guidance for interventional procedures using sonography.
This rapid pace of innovation makes our field exciting and rewarding and, at the same time, demands
that sonographers constantly improve their scanning skills.
It is the intention of this book to enable both students and experienced sonographers to enhance
their knowledge base. Thus, it is much more than a study guide directed solely at passing a one-time
test. It also provides a basis for the continuous study of diagnostic sonography.
I am confident that dedicated professional sonographers will continue to strive to improve the
quality of life of their patients and loved ones by such a continuous and committed study. It is the
editors’ hope that this material can enhance and provide guidance for this process.

Arthur C. Fleischer, MD
Nashville, TN
June 2012

Charles S. Odwin, RDMS

Riverdale, NY
June 2012
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Catherine Johnson and Regina Brown of
McGraw-Hill Publishers who guided the completion of this edition. Their commitment and guidance
in this process is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to express appreciation to Jill Trotter,
RDMS, Director of the Sonographer Training Program at Vanderbilt, for her suggestions and
guidance, and Aditi Desai (VSM IV) for her assistance with manuscript preparation. Vera Merri-
weather and Deborah Holland are thanked for their editorial assistance and John Bobbitt for his help
with the images.
I would also like to thank Susan Gross, MD, Wendy Wilcox, MD, and Sharon Deans, MD from
the North Central Bronx Hospital who were so kind to allow for a flexible work schedule, which
provided the time needed to work on this edition.
The authors of each chapter are thanked for their expertise and assistance. Finally, we want to
thank all of our sonographers and sonography students everywhere for providing the help and
inspiration for this project.
1
Sonography: Principles, Techniques, and Instrumentation
Charles S. Odwin, Ronald R. Price, and Arthur C. Fleischer

Study Guide

WHAT IS ULTRASOUND?
Ultrasound is a longitudinal, mechanical wave that carries variations of quantities referred to as
acoustic variables. Ultrasound is defined as an acoustic wave that has a frequency higher than the
upper limit of human hearing. That limit is typically assumed to be above 20,000 cycles per second
(or 20,000 Hz). The unit hertz (Hz) is the internationally accepted term for cycles per second.
Ultrasound waves are produced by oscillatory motion of particles in a medium, creating regions
of compression and rarefaction. The continued movement of particles propagating through a medium
is the result of collision between particles that make up the medium.
Ultrasound can be continuous or pulsed. In the continuous mode, the vibratory motions are
produced by the source in an uninterrupted stream, whereas in the pulsed mode, the sound is
delivered in a series of packets, or pulses. Almost all diagnostic ultrasound applications use pulsed
ultrasound.
The following terms are commonly used in diagnostic medical sonography:

Longitudinal wave is a wave in which the particles of the medium are in a direction parallel to the
wave propagation (as opposed to shear waves, also known as transverse waves, in which
particles of the medium travel in a direction that is perpendicular to the wave propagation).
Mechanical wave is a wave that requires a medium in which to travel and, therefore, cannot
propagate in a vacuum.
Acoustic variable. Each of the following is considered an acoustic variable: pressure, temperature,
density, particle motion (distance). Note that all of these variables change as an acoustic wave
passes through the medium.
Parameters of a wave (Fig. 1–1A). The following terms are common to all waves:
FIGURE 1–1A. The parameters of a wave. The frequency of this wave variable is 3 Hz (or cycles per
second). A period is one complete cycle; therefore, this wave consists of three periods. Note: The
vertical direction is compression and downward direction is rarefaction and both represent pressure
and density. Otherwise, it represents a positive (upward) or negative (downward) change in the
acoustic variable.

Cycle. A cycle is composed of one compression and one rarefaction, or a complete positive and
negative change in an acoustic variable.
Frequency (f) is the number of cycles per second. Frequency describes how many times the acoustic
variable (whether it be pressure, density, particle motion, or temperature) changes in one second.
 Units: hertz (Hz), megahertz (MHz).

Period is the time it takes for 1 cycle to occur; the inverse of frequency. Units: seconds (s),
microseconds (μs).

As the frequency increases, the period decreases. Conversely, as the frequency decreases, the period
increases.
Wavelength (λ) is the distance the wave must travel in 1 cycle. Wavelength is determined by both
the source of the wave and the medium in which it is propagating (Fig. 1–1B). Units: meters (m),
millimeters (mm).
FIGURE 1–1B. A wavelength represents the distance between two adjacent wave peaks.

With a velocity or propagation speed (c) of 1,540 m/s, the wavelength of 1 MHz is 1.54 mm, of 2
MHz is 0.77 mm, and of 3 MHz is 0.51 mm.
Propagation speed is the maximum speed with which an acoustic wave can move through a medium,
determined by the density and stiffness of the medium. Propagation speed increases
proportionally with the stiffness (i.e., the stiffer the medium, the faster the variable will travel).
Density is the concentration of mass per unit volume, and propagation speed is inversely
proportional to density. Units: meters/second (m/s), millimeters/microsecond (mm/μs).

It should be emphasized that compressibility is the opposite of stiffness. If compressibility

increases, then the propagation speed decreases.
Propagation speed is greater in solids > liquids > gases. Propagation speed (c) is equal to
frequency (f) times wavelength (λ) {c = f × l}. Because the propagation speed is constant for a given
medium, if the frequency increases, the wavelength will decrease. Conversely, if the frequency
decreases, the wavelength will increase.

Example
If the frequency of an ultrasound wave traveling through soft tissue is increased from 5 to 10 MHz,
what happens to the wavelength?
Steps to Solution:

Doubling the frequency halves the wavelength in a given medium. Note how the wavelength gets
smaller.

PARAMETERS USED TO DESCRIBE PULSED WAVES

Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses per second. Units: hertz (Hz), kilohertz
(kHz).

The PRF used depends on imaging depth. As the imaging depth increases, the PRF must decrease.
This phenomenon is characteristic of the pulse-listening period-receiving cycle of the transducer. The
longer it takes the returning signals (echoes) to come back to the transducer, the greater the interval
between pulses. Therefore, the farther away a target, the longer the return trip, and the greater the
interval between transmissions of the pulses wave.
Pulse repetition period (PRP) is the time from the beginning of one pulse to the beginning of the
next (Fig. 1–2A). Units: seconds (s), milliseconds (ms).

FIGURE 1–2A. Pulse repetition period (PRP).

The PRP increases as imaging depth increases. When depth decreases, the PRP decreases.
Pulse duration (PD) is the time it takes for a pulse to occur: the period of the ultrasound in the pulse
multiplied by the number of cycles in the pulse (see Fig. 1–2A). Units: seconds (s), milliseconds
 (ms), pulse duration = number of cycles (n) × period (p)
Duty factor is the fraction of time that the transducer is generating a pulse.

Maximum value: 1.0. In continuous wave, the transducer is always generating a pulse. A second
transducer acts as the listening device.
Minimum value: 0.0. The transducer is not being excited (therefore, no pulse will be generated).
In clinical imaging, using pulse-echo system the duty factor ranges from 0.001 to 0.01. Units:
unitless.

Note: Because the duty factor is unitless, and PD is usually in microseconds, it is necessary to divide
by 1,000 to cancel out the units in the formula. In using this formula, the units must match (PD and
PRP both must be in seconds, milliseconds, or microseconds). If not, a correction factor, such as the
1,000 in the denominator, must be used.
The duty factor can also be computed by the following formula:

Spatial pulse length (SPL) is the distance over which a pulse occurs (Fig. 1–2B). Unit: millimeters
(mm). Spatial pulse length (SPL) = wavelength (λ) × number of cycles in a pulse (n).
FIGURE 1–2B. Spatial pulse length (SPL).

Amplitude is the maximum variation that occurs in an acoustic variable. It indicates the strength of
the sound wave. To arrive at this variation, the undisturbed value is subtracted from the maximum
value, and the unit for the acoustic variable is applied (Fig. 1–3). Peak-to-peak amplitude (P–P)
is the maximum to minimum value.
FIGURE 1–3. A wave amplitude. Amplitude is equal to the maximum value minus the normal value.
Peak-to-peak (P–P) amplitude is equal to the maximum plus absolute value of the minimum.

Power is the rate of energy transferred. The power is proportional to the wave amplitude squared.
Unit: watts (W).
power ~ amplitude2
Intensity is the power in a wave divided by the area of the beam. Unit: watts per centimeter squared
(W/cm2).

Note: The intensity is proportional to the amplitude squared. If the amplitude doubles, then the
intensity quadruples.

POWER AND INTENSITY

The ultrasound power and the intensity of the ultrasound beam are not identical, although the two
terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The ultrasound power is the rate at which work is done; it
is equal to the work done divided by the time required to do the work. The intensity is the power per
unit area and represents the strength of the ultrasound beam. The intensities used in diagnostic
medical ultrasound applications range from 1 to 50 mW/cm2. Understanding of the ultrasound
intensity is important when studying the biologic effects of ultrasound in tissue (discussed later in this
chapter).
Intensities have both a peak value and an average value. The intensity of the sound beam as it
travels through a medium varies across the beam (spatial intensity) and with time (temporal
intensity).
Spatial peak (SP) is intensity at the center of the beam. Spatial average (SA) is intensity averaged
throughout the beam.
Temporal peak (TP) is maximum intensity in the pulse (measured when the pulse is on).
Temporal average (TA) is intensity averaged over one on-off beam cycle (takes into account the
intensity from the beginning of one pulse to the beginning of next).
Pulse average (PA) is intensity averaged over the duration of the single pulse.
Six intensities result when spatial and temporal considerations are combined:

In pulsed ultrasound, the TP is greater than the PA, which is greater than the TA. When using
continuous-wave ultrasound, however, TP and TA intensities are the same.
Spatial peak intensity is related to SA by the beam uniformity ratio (BUR).
BUR is a unitless coefficient that describes the distribution of ultrasound beam intensity in
space. The higher the SP, the more concentrated and the higher the SA, the less concentrated the
intensity. Units: unitless.
 Temporal average intensity is related to TP by the duty factor (DF). Units: unitless.

Attenuation
Attenuation is the reduction of the sound beam’s amplitude and intensity as it travels through a
medium. This is why the echoes from deep structures are weaker than those from more superficial
structures. The factors that contribute to attenuation are the following:

Absorption is the conversion of sound energy into heat. Absorption is the major source of attenuation
in soft tissues.
Scattering. Diffuse scattering is the redirection of the sound beam after it strikes rough or small
boundaries, when the wavelength is larger than the reflecting surface. Liver parenchyma and red
blood cells represent diffuse scattering.
Reflection is the return of a portion of the ultrasound beam back toward the transducer (an echo). Of
interest in diagnostic sonography is specular reflection, which occurs when the wavelength of the
pulse is much smaller than the boundary it is striking, and the surface is smooth. The best
examples of specular reflectors are the diaphragm, liver capsule, and gallbladder walls.
Reflection of the ultrasound beam depends on the acoustic impedance mismatch at the boundary
between two media (discussed in detail later in this chapter).
The unit in which attenuation is given is the decibel (dB). The decibel is the unit of intensity
ratio, or power; it is the quantity obtained by taking 10 times the log of the ratio of two intensities.

Attenuation coefficient is the attenuation per unit length of sound wave travel. For soft tissue, it is
approximately one-half of the operating frequency of the transducer; that is, for every centimeter per
MHz, there is approximately 0.5 dB of attenuation. For example, if the operation frequency of a
transducer is 5 MHz, then the attenuation coefficient is approximately 2.5 dB/cm.

Note: Path length is the distance the sound beam travels in a medium. The actual calculation of
decibel values is complex and need not be part of the sonographer’s bank of common knowledge, but
the sonographer should understand that because decibels are exponents, a small change in decibels
can mean a large change in resulting values. The most useful way to handle these values is to
memorize the commonly encountered ones (Table 1–1).

TABLE 1–1 • Decibel Values of Attenuation

Example 1
The ultrasound beam produced by a 4 MHz transducer has an initial intensity of 20 mW/cm2 after
traveling through 3 cm of tissue. What is the intensity of the beam at the end of this path?
(See Table 1–1.)
To obtain the final intensity, multiply the intensity ratio by the original intensity:

The intensity was, therefore, reduced to 25% of its original value. Another way to do this example is
to note that a 3-dB reduction means halving a value. Because 6 dB = 3 dB + 3 dB, an attenuation of 6
dB reduces the power by one-half (20 W → 10 W), then by one-half again (10 W → 5 W).

Example 2
After passing through soft tissue media, an ultrasound beam has an initial intensity of 100 mW/cm2.
Calculate the amount of attenuation.

Note: In strict mathematical terms, the 40 dB should be negative, but for our purpose, it can be simply
stated as 40 dB of attenuation. The attenuation, therefore, was 40 dB (–40 dB).
The half-intensity depth is the distance at which the intensity will be one-half that of the
original; the distance the sound beam will travel through a medium before its intensity is reduced by
50%. It is calculated by the formula:

The half-intensity depth can also be calculated from the frequency:

The half-intensity depth is a good indicator of the frequency that should be selected to view different
structures in the body. For example, if 50% of the intensity is gone before one reaches a certain depth,
then it is obvious that deeper structures will receive less of the sound beam and, thus, generate
weaker echoes. Therefore, to visualize deep structures it is necessary to use a lower frequency
Time gain compensation (TGC) is an electronic compensation for tissue attenuation.
TGC near gain increases or decreases the echo brightness in the near field.
TGC far gain increases or decreases the echo brightness in the far field.
Overall gain increases or decreases the overall brightness in the image.

Echoes
Echoes are the reflections of the sound beam as it travels through the media. An echo is generated
each time the beam encounters an acoustic impedance mismatch, but its strength depends on a number
of factors. One very important factor, the angle of incidence, is the angle at which the incident beam
strikes a boundary. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection (Fig. 1–4A).

FIGURE 1–4A. (A) An oblique incidence striking a boundary; (B) refraction of the sound beam; (C)
reflection of the sound beam. Note: An oblique incidence is not a normal incidence. A normal
incidence is 90° (perpendicular). An incidence beam can be
1. Perpendicular (normal)
 2. Oblique incidence (an incidence beam at an oblique angle) not perpendicular. The angle of
incidence is the angle of any of the incidence beams.
Perpendicular incidence is a beam traveling through a medium perpendicular to a boundary and
encountering the boundary at a 90° angle (Fig. 1–4B). Perpendicular incidence is also known as
normal incidence.1 The portion of the beam that is not reflected continues in a straight line; this is
called transmission.

FIGURE 1–4B. The transmission of the perpendicular incidence sound beam, also called normal
incidence. (A) Normal incidence striking a boundary perpendicularly; (B) the intensity transmitted;
(C) reflection of energy at the boundary of medium 1 and medium 2. Note: Beam (C) actually travels
back along the beam coming from (A), but it is depicted separately.

Perpendicular incidence will produce a reflection when the acoustic impedance changes at the
boundary. Acoustic impedance is the product of the density of a medium and the velocity of sound
in that medium.

At an acoustic impedance mismatch, the sound beam will proceed (transmission), be reflected, or
both. The relationship between perpendicular incidence and the intensity of the echoes can be
characterized by the following formulas:
The ITC can also be calculated by the formula:

Example
Given two media, one with an acoustic impedance of 20 rayls and the other with an acoustic
impedance of 40 rayls, calculate the intensity reflection coefficient (IRC), the intensity transmission
coefficient (ITC), the reflected intensity, and the transmitted intensity. (Assume that the incident
intensity is 10 mW/cm2.)

If the reflected intensity is equal to the IRC times the original intensity, then reflected intensity = 0.11
× 10 mW/cm2 = 1.1 mW/cm2.
If the transmitted intensity is equal to the ITC times the original intensity, then transmitted
intensity = 0.89 × 10 mW/cm2 = 8.9 mW/cm2.
Oblique incidence is an angle of incidence that is not 90° perpendicular to a boundary. The angle of
transmission will be equal to the angle of incidence as long as the propagation speeds of the
media on each side of the boundary are equal. If the propagation speeds are different, however,
then the angle of incidence will not be equal to the angle of transmission. The change in direction,
the difference in the angle of incidence and the angle of transmission (Fig. 1–5A, B, and C), is
called refraction (Snell’s law).
FIGURE 1–5A. In medium 1, the propagation speed is 4 m/s; in medium 2, the propagation speed is 2
m/s; therefore, the beam bends toward the normal plane. (A) Incidence striking a boundary; (B)
refraction of the sound beam; (C) reflected beam.
FIGURE 1–5B. In medium 1, the propagation speed is 4 m/s; in medium 2, the propagation speed is 4
m/s; therefore, the angle incidence will be equal to the angle of transmission with no refraction. (A)
Incidence striking a boundary; (B) transmitted beam; (C) reflected beam.
FIGURE 1–5C. In medium 1, the propagation speed is 4 m/s; in medium 2, the propagation speed is 6
m/s; therefore, the beam bends away from the normal angle. (A) Incidence striking a boundary; (B)
refraction of the sound beam; (C) reflected beam.

The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, but the angle of transmission is
variable and can be calculated as follows:
Note: The above equation is only an approximation; at larger angles, it is subject to larger error. To
obtain true accuracy, use the full form of Snell’s law:

The range equation is the relationship between the round-trip travel time of the pulse and the
distance to a reflector. This equation determines the position a reflector will have in depth on the
display monitor.

If we assume the propagation speed to be constant at 1,540 m/s or 1.54 mm/μs, then one-half the
propagation speed is equal to 0.77 mm/μs, and the formula can be simplified:

If we assume that for every 13 μs the pulse travels 1 cm, then d = t/13. the value of (t) must be
given in microseconds if the propagation speed is in millimeters per microseconds. The range
equation defines the position a reflector will have in depth on the display monitor.

Contrast Agents and Tissue Harmonic Imaging

Contrast agents for ultrasound have included colloidal suspensions, emulsions, liquids, solid
particles, and gas-filled microbubbles. At the present time, contrast agents based on gas-filled
bubbles dominate those that are Food and Drug Administration-approved and in common clinical use.
The first gas-filled microbubbles used air; however, agents that are more recent are microspheres
containing trapped perfluorocarbon gas. The choice of a gas-filled structure to enhance reflectivity is
obvious if we refer back to the intensity reflection coefficient (IRC). In the IRC, it is the difference
between the acoustic impedance (Z) of the contrast agent and its surroundings that is important. By
making the Z of the agent very small relative to the surrounding tissue (achieved by using a gas), the
reflectivity of the agent becomes much greater than the surrounding tissue reflectivity.
Harmonic imaging is a result of the nonlinear propagation of the sound beam as it passes through
tissue. Harmonic images were first recognized when imaging gas-filled contrast agents in which a
portion of the energy being transmitted at a fundamental frequency (f) was being reflected
(backscattered) at higher harmonic frequencies (2f, 3f, etc.).
Later, it was recognized that harmonic frequencies were also being produced in tissues. The
advantage of the harmonic beam is that it has less dispersion (narrower) than the fundamental
frequency and also has smaller side lobes. The narrower beam results in increased lateral resolution,
and the reduced side lobes reduce image clutter. Harmonic images are created by eliminating the
fundamental frequency and selectively recording the higher-frequency echo components.

TRANSDUCERS
A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy to another. In diagnostic sonography, the
transducer converts electrical energy to pressure energy (acoustic energy) and vice versa.

1. Active element
A. Piezoelectric principle is the conversion of electrical energy to pressure energy and vice versa.
Ultrasound (pressure energy) is generated by electric stimulation of the piezoelectric element
causing expansions and contractions of the element, which, in turn, generate the ultrasound
pulse. The resultant ultrasound pulse produces a similar distortion of the element and then
converts back to an electric signal (Fig. 1–6).
FIGURE 1–6. Applied electrical voltage. (A) Physical compression on the crystal will generate a
potential difference across the faces of the crystal. The effect is called piezoelectric effect. (B)
Voltage applied on the crystal will generate mechanical energy (ultrasound). The effect is called
reverse piezoelectric effect.

B. Material. The active element can be natural (e.g., quartz, tourmaline, Rochelle salt) or synthetic
(e.g., lead zirconate titanate [PZT], barium titanate, lithium sulfate). Synthetic elements are
 most commonly used in today’s diagnostic equipment because of their availability and low
cost. To turn one of these manufactured substances into a piezoelectric element, it is heated to
its Curie point, or the temperature at which a ferroelectric material such as many piezoelectric
materials, loses its magnetic properties. The dipoles within the material are then polarized with
an electric current. When the element cools, the dipoles are fixed (Fig. 1–7). The material is
cut and shaped, then housed in the transducer.

FIGURE 1–7. Synthetic material with dipoles. (A) Nonpolarized; (B) Polarized; (C) Dipole.

C. Properties of elements (crystals). The frequency of the acoustic wave produced by a standard
 pulsed-wave imaging system is determined by the thickness of the piezoelectric element and
the propagation speed of the crystal. The propagation speed of the crystal is approximately
three to five times greater than the speed of ultrasound in soft tissue, namely, 4 to 8 mm/μs. The
thinner the crystal, the greater the frequency

The diameter of the crystal does not affect the pulse frequency; it does, however, determine the
lateral resolution. Neither the impedance of the matching layer nor the thickness of the backing
material is a primary determinant of ultrasound frequency.
In contrast to pulse wave, the frequency of continuous-wave ultrasound is equal to the
frequency of the electric voltage that drives the piezoelectric crystal. In simpler terms, when
the pulser of a continuous-wave system produces an electric signal with a frequency of 6 MHz,
the frequency of the emitted acoustic signal will also be 6 MHz.

2. Damping material (backing material) is an epoxy resin attached to the back of the element that
absorbs the vibrations and reduces the number of cycles in a pulse (Fig. 1–8). By reducing the
number of cycles, the following are accomplished:
A. Pulse duration (PD) and spatial pulse length (SPL) are reduced. PD = number of cycles (n) × time
(t), where t = period of ultrasound in pulse. SPL = number of cycles (n) × wavelength (λ).
By reducing these two factors, the axial resolution will be improved.

B. Bandwidth (the width of the frequency spectrum) is increased by increasing the damping. When
the bandwidth increases, the quality factor (Q factor) of the transducer decreases.
C. The duty factor is decreased.
FIGURE 1–8. Components of a transducer.

3. Matching layer is a substance placed in front of the transducer element’s face material to
decrease the reflection at the transducer-tissue interface. The matching layer is necessary because
the impedance difference between the transducer crystal and the soft tissue is so large that most of
the energy will be reflected back at the skin surface. The matching layer provides an intermediate
impedance, allowing transmission of the ultrasound beam into the body.
The thickness of the matching layer is usually equal to one-quarter of the wavelength.1
Multiple layers are often used to avoid reflections caused by the variety of frequencies and
 wavelengths present in short pulses. In addition to the matching layer of the transducer, a coupling
gel is used to form a transducer surface-skin contact that will eliminate air and prevent reflection
at this boundary

Bandwidth and Quality Factor

The transducer produces more than one frequency. For example, the operating frequency may be 3.5
MHz, but a spectrum of other frequencies are also generated, known as the bandwidth. The shorter
the pulse, the more of these other frequencies are generated. Therefore, the bandwidth and the pulse
length are inversely proportional; as the pulse length decreases, the bandwidth increases (Fig. 1–9).
Continuous-wave ultrasound has a very narrow bandwidth.
FIGURE1–9. Bandwidth (A) with damping, (B) with no damping. Note: Damping increases
bandwidth.

If the bandwidth increases, the Q factor decreases. If, however, the operating frequency increases,
the Q factor increases. A low Q factor indicates:

1. Broad bandwidth
2. Low operating frequency
3. Shortened pulse length
4. Uniform near field (Many frequencies in a pulse result in a more uniform intensity distribution.)

Types of Transducers
There are several ways to classify transducers; one is the way the sound beam is swept (or steered).
This process can be either mechanical or electrical.
A mechanical transducer (Fig. 1–10) has a scan head that contains a single disk-shaped active
element. One type of mechanical transducer is the oscillatory or rotary type, which has an element
physically attached to a mechanical device to move it through a pathway (see Fig. 1–10A). A second
type has an oscillatory mirror that mechanically moves while the element remains stationary (see
Fig. 1–10B).
Another Random Scribd Document
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the sun and moon have not only this ring to move, but likewise the
whole globe of the earth, upon whose spherical part they have no
immediate influence. Beside the effect is also rendred less, by reason
that the prominent part of the earth is not collected all under the
equator, but spreads gradually from thence toward both poles. Upon
the whole, though the sun alone carries the nodes of the moon
through an intire revolution in about 19 years, the united force of
both luminaries on the prominent parts of the earth will hardly carry
round the equinox in a less space of time than 26000 years.
50. T o this motion of the equinox we must add another
consequence of this action of the sun and moon upon the elevated
parts of the earth, that this annular part of the earth about the
equator, and consequently the earth’s axis, will twice a year and
twice a month change its inclination to the plane of the earth’s
motion, and be again restored, just as the inclination of the moon’s
orbit by the action of the sun is annually twice diminished, and as
often recovers its original magnitude. But this change is very
insensible.
51. I s h a l l now finish the present chapter with our great
author’s inquiry into the figure of the secondary planets, particularly
of our moon, upon the figure of which its fluid parts will have an
influence. The moon turns always the same side towards the earth,
and consequently revolves but once round its axis in the space of an
entire month; for a spectator placed without the circle, in which the
moon moves, would in that time observe all the parts of the moon
successively to pass once before his view and no more, that is, that
the whole globe of the moon has turned once round. Now the great
slowness of this motion will render the centrifugal force of the parts
of the waters very weak, so that the figure of the moon cannot, as in
the earth, be much affected by this revolution upon its axis: but the
figure of those waters are made different from spherical by another
cause, viz. the action of the earth upon them; by which they will be
reduced to an oblong oval form, whose axis prolonged would pass
through the earth; for the same reason, as we have above observed,
that the waters of the earth would take the like figure, if they had
moved so slowly, as to keep pace with the moon. And the solid part
of the moon must correspond with this figure of the fluid part: but
this elevation of the parts of the moon is nothing near so great as is
the protuberance of the earth at the equator, for it will not exceed 93
english feet.
52. The waters of the moon will have no tide, except what will
arise from the motion of the moon round the earth. For the
conversion of the moon about her axis is equable, whereby the
inequality in the motion round the earth discovers to us at some
times small parts of the moon’s surface towards the east or west,
which at other times lie hid; and as the axis, whereon the moon
turns, is oblique to her motion round the earth, sometimes small
parts of her surface toward the north, and sometimes the like toward
the south are visible, which at other times are out of sight. These
appearances make what is called the libration of the moon,
discovered by Hevelius. But now as the axis of the oval figure of the
waters will he pointed towards the earth, there must arise from
hence some fluctuation in them; and beside, by the change of the
moon’s distance from the earth, they will not always have the very
same height.
B O O K I I I.
 C h a p I.
Concerning the cause of COLOURS
inherent in the LIGHT.
A FTER this view which has been taken of Sir Isaac Newton’s
mathematical principles of philosophy, and the use he has
made of them, in explaining the system of the world, &c.
the course of my design directs us to turn our eyes to that
other philosophical work, his treatise of Optics, in which we shall find
our great author’s inimitable genius discovering it self no less, than
in the former; nay perhaps even more, since this work gives as
many instances of his singular force of reasoning, and of his
unbounded invention, though unassisted in great measure by those
rules and general precepts, which facilitate the invention of
mathematical theorems. Nor yet is this work inferior to the other in
usefulness; for as that has made known to us one great principle in
nature, by which the celestial motions are continued, and by which
the frame of each globe is preserved; so does this point out to us
another principle no less universal, upon which depends all those
operations in the smaller parts of matter, for whose sake the greater
frame of the universe is erected; all those immense globes, with
which the whole heavens are filled, being without doubt only
design’d as so many convenient apartments for carrying on the more
noble operations of nature in vegetation and animal life. Which
single consideration gives abundant proof of the excellency of our
author’s choice, in applying himself carefully to examine the action
between light and bodies, so necessary in all the varieties of these
productions, that none of them can be successfully promoted
without the concurrence of heat in a greater or less degree.
2. ’ T i s true, our author has not made so full a discovery of the
principle, by which this mutual action between light and bodies is
caused; as he has in relation to the power, by which the planets are
kept in their courses: yet he has led us to the very entrance upon it,
and pointed out the path so plainly which must be followed to reach
it; that one may be bold to say, whenever mankind shall be blessed
with this improvement of their knowledge, it will be derived so
directly from the principles laid down by our author in this book, that
the greatest share of the praise due to the discovery will belong to
him.
3. I n speaking of the progress our author has made, I shall
distinctly pursue three things, the two first relating to the colours of
natural bodies: for in the first head shall be shewn, how those
colours are derived from the properties of the light itself; and in the
second upon what properties of the bodies they depend: but the
third head of my discourse shall treat of the action of bodies upon
light in refracting, reflecting, and inflecting it.
4. T h e first of these, which shall be the business of the present
chapter, is contained in this one proposition: that the sun’s direct
light is not uniform in respect of colour, not being disposed in every
part of it to excite the idea of whiteness, which the whole raises; but
on the contrary is a composition of different kinds of rays, one sort
of which if alone would give the sense of red, another of orange, a
third of yellow, a fourth of green, a fifth of light blue, a sixth of
indigo, and a seventh of a violet purple; that all these rays together
by the mixture of their sensations impress upon the organ of sight
the sense of whiteness, though each ray always imprints there its
own colour; and all the difference between the colours of bodies
when viewed in open day light arises from this, that coloured bodies
do not reflect all the sorts of rays falling upon them in equal plenty,
but some sorts much more copiously than others; the body
appearing of that colour, of which the light coming from it is most
composed.
5. T h a t the light of the sun is compounded, as has been said, is
proved by refracting it with a prism. By a prism I here mean a glass
or other body of a triangular form, such as is represented in fig. 121.
But before we proceed to the illustration of the proposition we have
just now laid down, it will be necessary to spend a few words in
explaining what is meant by the refraction of light; as the design of
our present labour is to give some notion of the subject, we are
engaged in, to such as are not versed in the mathematics.
6. I t is well known, that when a ray of light passing through the
air falls obliquely upon the surface of any transparent body, suppose
water or glass, and enters it, the ray will not pass on in that body in
the same line it described through the air, but be turned off from the
surface, so as to be less inclined to it after passing it, than before.
Let A B C D (in fig. 122.) represent a portion of water, or glass, A B
the surface of it, upon which the ray of light E F falls obliquely; this
ray shall not go right on in the course delineated by the line F G, but
be turned off from the surface A B into the line F H, less inclined to
the surface A B than the line E F is, in which the ray is incident upon
that surface.
7. O n the other hand, when the light passes out of any such
body into the air, it is inflected the contrary way, being after its
emergence rendred more oblique to the surface it passes through,
than before. Thus the ray F H, when it goes out of the surface C D,
will be turned up towards that surface, going out into the air in the
line H I.
8. T h i s turning of the light out of its way, as it passes from one
transparent body into another is called its refraction. Both these
cases may be tried by an easy experiment with a bason and water.
For the first case set an empty bason in the sunshine or near a
candle, making a mark upon the bottom at the extremity of the
shadow cast by the brim of the bason, then by pouring water into
the bason you will observe the shadow to shrink, and leave the
bottom of the bason enlightned to a good distance from the mark.
Let A B C (in fig. 123.) denote the empty bason, E A D the light
shining over the brim of it, so that all the part A B D be shaded.
Then a mark being made at D, if water be poured into the bason (as
in fig. 124.) to F G, you shall observe the light, which before went on
to D, now to come much short of the mark D, falling on the bottom
in the point H, and leaving the mark D a good way within the
enlightened part; which shews that the ray E A, when it enters the
water at I, goes no longer straight forwards, but is at that place
incurvated, and made to go nearer the perpendicular. The other case
may be tryed by putting any small body into an empty bason, placed
lower than your eye, and then receding from the bason, till you can
but just see the body over the brim. After which, if the bason be
filled with water, you shall presently observe the body to be visible,
though you go farther off from the bason. Let A B C (in fig. 125.)
denote the bason as before, D the body in it, E the place of your
eye, when the body is seen just over the edge A, while the bason is
empty. If it be then filled with water, you will observe the body still
to be visible, though you take your eye farther off. Suppose you see
the body in this case just over the brim A, when your eye is at F, it is
plain that the rays of light, which come from the body to your eye
have not come straight on, but are bent at A, being turned
downwards, and more inclined to the surface of the water, between
A and your eye at F, than they are between A and the body D.
9. T h i s we hope is sufficient to make all our readers apprehend,
what the writers of optics mean, when they mention the refraction
of the light, or speak of the rays of light being refracted. We shall
therefore now go on to prove the assertion advanced in the
forementioned proposition, in relation to the different kinds of
colours, that the direct light of the sun exhibits to our sense: which
may be done in the following manner.
10. I f a room be darkened, and the sun permitted to shine into it
through a small hole in the window shutter, and be made
immediately to fall upon a glass prism, the beam of light shall in
passing through such a prism be parted into rays, which exhibit all
the forementioned colours. In this manner if A B (in fig. 126)
represent the window shutter; C the hole in it; D E F the prism; Z Y
a beam of light coming from the sun, which passes through the hole,
and falls upon the prism at Y, and if the prism were removed would
go on to X, but in entring the surface B F of the glass it shall be
turned off, as has been explained, into the course Y W falling upon
the second surface of the prism D F in W, going out of which into the
air it shall be again farther inflected. Let the light now, after it has
passed the prism, be received upon a sheet of paper held at a
proper distance, and it shall paint upon the paper the picture, image,
or spectrum L M of an oblong figure, whose length shall much
exceed its breadth; though the figure shall not be oval, the ends L
and M being semicircular and the sides straight. But now this figure
will be variegated with colours in this manner. From the extremity M
to some length, suppose to the line n o, it shall be of an intense red;
from n o to p q it shall be an orange; from p q to r s it shall be
yellow; from thence to t u it shall be green; from thence to w x blue;
from thence to y z indigo; and from thence to the end violet.
11. T h u s it appears that the sun’s white light by its passage
through the prism, is so changed as now to be divided into rays,
which exhibit all these several colours. The question is, whether the
rays while in the sun’s beam before this refraction possessed these
properties distinctly; so that some part of that beam would without
the rest have given a red colour, and another part alone have given
an..orange, &c. That this is possible to be the case, appears from
hence; that if a convex glass be placed between the paper and the
prism, which may collect all the rays proceeding out of the prism
into its focus, as a burning glass does the sun’s direct rays; and if
that focus fall upon the paper, the spot formed by such a glass upon
the paper shall appear white, just like the sun’s direct light.
 The rest remaining as before, let P Q. (in fig. 127.) be the convex
glass, causing the rays to meet upon the paper H G I K in the point
N, I say that point or rather spot of light shall appear white, without
the least tincture of any colour. But it is evident that into this spot
are now gathered all those rays, which before when separate gave
all those different colours; which shews that whiteness may be made
by mixing those colours: especially if we consider, it can be proved
that the glass P Q does not alter the colour of the rays which pass
through it. Which is done thus: if the paper be made to approach
the glass P Q, the colours will manifest themselves as far as the
magnitude of the spectrum, which the paper receives, will permit.
Suppose it in the situation h g i k, and that it then receive the
spectrum l m, this spectrum shall be much smaller, than if the glass
P Q were removed, and therefore the colours cannot be so much
separated; but yet the extremity m shall manifestly appear red, and
the other extremity l shall be blue; and these colours as well as the
intermediate ones shall discover themselves more perfectly, the
farther the paper is removed from N, that is, the larger the spectrum
is: the same thing happens, if the paper be removed farther off from
P Q than N. Suppose into the position θ γ η ϰ, the spectrum λ μ
painted upon it shall again discover its colours, and that more
distinctly, the farther the paper is removed, but only in an inverted
order: for as before, when the paper was nearer the convex glass,
than at N, the upper part of the image was blue, and the under red;
now the upper part shall be red, and the under blue: because the
rays cross at N.
12. N a y farther that the whiteness at the focus N, is made by the
union of the colours may be proved without removing the paper out
of the focus, by intercepting with any opake body part of the light
near the glass; for if the under part, that is the red, or more properly
the red-making rays, as they are styled by our author, are
intercepted, the spot shall take a bluish hue; and if more of the
inferior rays are cut off, so that neither the red-making nor orange-
making rays, and if you please the yellow-making rays likewise, shall
fall upon the spot; then shall the spot incline more and more to the
remaining colours. In like manner if you cut off the upper part of the
rays, that is the violet coloured or indigo-making rays, the spot shall
turn reddish, and become, more so, the more of those opposite
colours are intercepted.
13. T h i s I think abundantly proves that whiteness may be
produced by a mixture of all the colours of the spectrum. At least
there is but one way of evading the present arguments, which is, by
asserting that the rays of light after passing the prism have no
different properties to exhibit this or the other colour, but are in that
respect perfectly homogeneal, so that the rays which pass to the
under and red part of the image do not differ in any properties
whatever from those, which go to the upper and violet part of it; but
that the colours of the spectrum are produced only by some new
modifications of the rays, made at their incidence upon the paper by
the different terminations of light and shadow: if indeed this
assertion can be allowed any place, after what has been said; for it
seems to be sufficiently obviated by the latter part of the preceding
experiment, that by intercepting the inferior part of the light, which
comes from the prism, the white spot shall receive a bluish cast, and
by stopping the upper part the spot shall turn red, and in both cases
recover its colour, when the intercepted light is permitted to pass
again; though in all these trials there is the like termination of light
and shadow. However our author has contrived some experiments
expresly to shew the absurdity of this supposition; all which he has
explained and enlarged upon in so distinct and expressive a manner,
that it would be wholly unnecessary to repeat them in this
place[280]. I shall only mention that of them, which may be tried in
the experiment before us. If you draw upon the paper H G I K, and
through the spot N, the straight line w x parallel to the horizon, and
then if the paper be much inclined into the situation r s v t the line
w x still remaining parallel to the horizon, the spot N shall lose its
whiteness and receive a blue tincture; but if it be inclined as much
the contrary way, the same spot shall exchange its white colour for a
reddish dye. All which can never be accounted for by any difference
in the termination of the light and shadow, which here is none at all;
but are easily explained by supposing the upper part of the rays,
whenever they enter the eye, disposed to give the sensation of the
dark colours blue, indigo and violet; and that the under part is fitted
to produce the bright colours yellow, orange and red: for when the
paper is in the situation r s t u, it is plain that the upper part of the
light falls more directly upon it, than the under part, and therefore
those rays will be most plentifully reflected from it; and by their
abounding in the reflected light will cause it to incline to their colour.
Just so when the paper is inclined the contrary way, it will receive
the inferior rays most directly, and therefore ting the light it reflects
with their colour.
 14. I t is now to be proved that these dispositions of the rays of
light to produce some one colour and some another, which manifest
themselves after their being refracted, are not wrought by any action
of the prism upon them, but are originally inherent in those rays;
and that the prism only affords each species an occasion of shewing
its distinct quality by separating them one from another, which
before, while they were blended together in the direct beam of the
sun’s light, lay conceal’d. But that this is so, will be proved, if it can
be shewn that no prism has any power upon the rays, which after
their passage through one prism are rendered uncompounded and
contain in them but one colour, either to divide that colour into
several, as the sun’s light is divided, or so much as to change it into
any other colour. This will be proved by the following
experiment[281]. The same thing remaining, as in the first
experiment, let another prism N O (in fig. 128.) be placed either
immediately, or at some distance after the first, in a perpendicular
posture, so that it shall refract the rays issuing from the first
sideways. Now if this prism could divide the light falling upon it into
coloured rays, as the first has done, it would divide the spectrum
breadthwise into colours, as before it was divided lengthwise; but no
such thing is observed. If L M were the spectrum, which the first
prism D E F would paint upon the paper H G I K; P Q lying in an
oblique posture shall be the spectrum projected by the second, and
shall be divided lengthwise into colours corresponding to the colours
of the spectrum L M, and occasioned like them by the refraction of
the first prism, but its breadth shall receive no such division; on the
contrary each colour shall be uniform from side to side, as much as
in the spectrum L M, which proves the whole assertion.
15. T h e same is yet much farther confirmed by another
experiment. Our author teaches that the colours of the spectrum L M
in the first experiment are yet compounded, though not so much as
in the sun’s direct light. He shews therefore how, by placing the
prism at a distance from the hole, and by the use of a convex glass,
to separate the colours of the spectrum, and make them
uncompounded to any degree of exactness[282]. And he shews when
this is done sufficiently, if you make a small hole in the paper
whereon the spectrum is received, through which any one sort of
rays may pass, and then let that coloured ray fall so upon a prism,
as to be refracted by it, it shall in no case whatever change its
colour; but shall always retain it perfectly as at first, however it be
refracted[283].
16. N o r yet will these colours after this full separation of them
suffer any change by reflection from bodies of different colours; on
the other hand they make all bodies placed in these colours appear
of the colour which falls upon them[284]: for minium in red light will
appear as in open day light; but in yellow light will appear yellow;
and which is more extraordinary, in green light will appear green, in
blue, blue; and in the violet-purple coloured light will appear of a
purple colour; in like manner verdigrease, or blue bise, will put on
the appearance of that colour, in which it is placed; so that neither
bise placed in the red light shall be able to give that light the least
blue tincture, or any other different from red; nor shall minium in the
indigo or violet light exhibit the least appearance of red, or any other
colour distinct from that it is placed in. The only difference is, that
each of these bodies appears most luminous and bright in the colour,
which corresponds with that it exhibits in the day light, and dimmed
in the colours most remote from that; that is, though minium and
bise placed in blue light shall both appear blue, yet the bise shall
appear of a bright blue, and the minium of a dusky and obscure
blue: but if minium and bise be compared together in red light, the
minium shall afford a brisk red, the bise a duller colour, though of
the same species.
17. A n d this not only proves the immutability of all these simple
and uncompounded colours; but likewise unfolds the whole mystery,
why bodies appear in open day-light of such different colours, it
consisting in nothing more than this, that whereas the white light of
the day is composed of all sorts of colours, some bodies reflect the
rays of one sort in greater abundance than the rays of any
other[285]. Though it appears by the fore-cited experiment, that
almost all these bodies reflect some portion of the rays of every
colour, and give the sense of particular colours only by the
predominancy of some sorts of rays above the rest. And what has
before been explained of composing white by mingling all the
colours of the spectrum together shews clearly, that nothing more is
required to make bodies look white, than a power to reflect
indifferently rays of every colour. But this will more fully appear by
the following method: if near the coloured spectrum in our first
experiment a piece of white paper be so held, as to be illuminated
equally by all the parts of that spectrum, it shall appear white;
whereas if it be held nearer to the red end of the image, than to the
other, it shall turn reddish; if nearer the blue end, it shall seem
bluish[286].
18. O u r indefatigable and circumspect author farther examined
his theory by mixing the powders which painters use of several
colours, in order if possible to produce a white powder by such a
composition[287]. But in this he found some difficulties for the
following reasons. Each of these coloured powders reflects but part
of the light, which is cast upon them; the red powders reflecting
little green or blue, and the blue powders reflecting very little red or
yellow, nor the green powders reflecting near so much of the red or
indigo and purple, as of the other colours: and besides, when any of
these are examined in homogeneal light, as our author calls the
colours of the prism, when well separated, though each appears
more bright and luminous in its own day-light colour, than in any
other; yet white bodies, suppose white paper for instance, in those
very colours exceed these coloured bodies themselves in brightness;
so that white bodies reflect not only more of the whole light than
coloured bodies do in the day-light, but even more of that very
colour which they reflect most copiously. All which considerations
make it manifest that a mixture of these will not reflect so great a
quantity of light, as a white body of the same size; and therefore will
compose such a colour as would result from a mixture of white and
black, such as are all grey and dun colours, rather than a strong
white. Now such a colour he compounded of certain ingredients,
which he particularly sets down, in so much that when the
composition was strongly illuminated by the sun’s direct beams, it
would appear much whiter than even white paper, if considerably
shaded. Nay he found by trials how to proportion the degree of
illumination of the mixture and paper, so that to a spectator at a
proper distance it could not well be determined which was the more
perfect colour; as he experienced not only by himself, but by the
concurrent opinion of a friend, who chanced to visit him while he
was trying this experiment. I must not here omit another method of
trying the whiteness of such a mixture, proposed in one of our
author’s letters on this subject[288]: which is to enlighten the
composition by a beam of the sun let into a darkened room, and
then to receive the light reflected from it upon a piece of white
paper, observing whether the paper appears white by that reflection;
for if it does, it gives proof of the composition’s being white; because
when the paper receives the reflection from any coloured body, it
looks of that colour. Agreeable to this is the trial he made upon
water impregnated with soap, and agitated into a froth[289]: for
when this froth after some short time exhibited upon the little
bubbles, which composed it, a great variety of colours, though these
colours to a spectator at a small distance discover’d themselves
distinctly; yet when the eye was so far removed, that each little
bubble could no longer be distinguished, the whole froth by the
mixture of all these colours appeared intensly white.
19. O u r author having fully satisfied himself by these and many
other experiments, what the result is of mixing together all the
prismatic colours; he proceeds in the next place to examine,
whether this appearance of whiteness be raised by the rays of these
different kinds acting so, when they meet, upon one another, as to
cause each of them to impress the sense of whiteness upon the
optic nerve; or whether each ray does not make upon the organ of
sight the same impression, as when separate and alone; so that the
idea of whiteness is not excited by the impression from any one part
of the rays, but results from the mixture of all those different
sensations. And that the latter sentiment is the true one, he evinces
by undeniable experiments.
 20. I n particular the foregoing experiment[290], wherein the
convex glass was used, furnishes proofs of this: in that when the
paper is brought into the situation θ γ η ϰ, beyond, beyond N the
colours, that at N disappeared, begin to emerge again; which shews
that by mingling at N they did not lose their colorific qualities,
though for some reason they lay concealed. This farther appears by
that part of the experiment, when the paper, while in the focus, was
directed to be enclined different ways; for when the paper was in
such a situation, that it must of necessity reflect the rays, which
before their arrival at the point N would have given a blue colour,
those rays in this very point itself by abounding in the reflected light
tinged it with the same colour; so when the paper reflects most
copiously the rays, which before they come to the point N exhibit
redness, those same rays tincture the light reflected by the paper
from that very point with their own proper colour.
21. T h e r e is a certain condition relating to sight, which affords
an opportunity of examining this still more fully: it is this, that the
impressions of light remain some short space upon the eye; as when
a burning coal is whirl’d about in a circle, if the motion be very
quick, the eye shall not be able to distinguish the coal, but shall see
an entire circle of fire. The reason of which appearance is, that the
impression made by the coal upon the eye in any one situation is not
worn out, before the coal returns again to the same place, and
renews the sensation. This gives our author the hint to try, whether
these colours might not be transmitted successively to the eye so
quick, that no one of the colours should be distinctly perceived, but
the mixture of the sensations should produce a uniform whiteness;
when the rays could not act upon each other, because they never
should meet, but come to the eye one after another. And this
thought he executed by the following expedient[291]. He made an
instrument in shape like a comb, which he applied near the convex
glass, so that by moving it up and down slowly the teeth of it might
intercept sometimes one and sometimes another colour; and
accordingly the light reflected from the paper, placed at N, should
change colour continually. But now when the comb-like instrument
was moved very quick, the eye lost all preception of the distinct
colours, which came to it from time to time, a perfect whiteness
resulting from the mixture of all those distinct impressions in the
sensorium. Now in this case there can be no suspicion of the several
coloured rays acting upon one another, and making any change in
each other’s manner of affecting the eye, seeing they do not so
much as meet together there.
22. O u r author farther teaches us how to view the spectrum of
colours produced in the first experiment with another prism, so that
it shall appear to the eye under the shape of a round spot and
perfectly white[292]. And in this case if the comb be used to
intercept alternately some of the colours, which compose the
spectrum, the round spot shall change its colour according to the
colours intercepted; but if the comb be moved too swiftly for those
changes to be distinctly perceived, the spot shall seem always white,
as before[293].
23. B e s i d e s this whiteness, which results from an universal
composition of all sorts of colours, our author particularly explains
the effects of other less compounded mixtures; some of which
compound other colours like some of the simple ones, but others
produce colours different from any of them. For instance, a mixture
of red and yellow compound a colour like in appearance to the
orange, which in the spectrum lies between them; as a composition
of yellow and blue is made use of in all dyes to make a green. But
red and violet purple compounded make purples unlike to any of the
prismatic colours, and these joined with yellow or blue make yet new
colours. Besides one rule is here to be observed, that when many
different colours are mixed, the colour which arises from the mixture
grows languid and degenerates into whiteness. So when yellow
green and blue are mixed together, the compound will be green; but
if to this you add red and purple, the colour shall first grow dull and
less vivid, and at length by adding more of these colours it shall turn
to whiteness, or some other colour[294].
 24. O n l y here is one thing remarkable of those compounded
colours, which are like in appearance to the simple ones; that the
simple ones when viewed through a prism shall still retain their
colour, but the compounded colours seen through such a glass shall
be parted into the simple ones of which they are the aggregate. And
for this reason any body illuminated by the simple light shall appear
through a prism distinctly, and have its minutest parts observable, as
may easily be tried with flies, or other such little bodies, which have
very small parts; but the same viewed in this manner when
enlighten’d with compounded colours shall appear confused, their
smallest parts not being distinguishable. How the prism separates
these compounded colours, as likewise how it divides the light of the
sun into its colours, has not yet been explained; but is reserved for
our third chapter.
25. I n the mean time what has been said, I hope, will suffice to
give a taste of our author’s way of arguing, and in some measure to
illustrate the proposition laid down in this chapter.
26. T h e r e are methods of separating the heterogeneous rays of
the sun’s light by reflection, which perfectly conspire with and
confirm this reasoning. One of which ways may be this. Let A B (in
fig. 129) represent the window shutter of a darkened room; C a hole
to let in the sun’s rays; D E F, G H I two prisms so applied together,
that the sides E F and G I be contiguous, and the sides D F, G H
parallel; by this means the light will pass through them without any
separation into colours: but if it be afterwards received by a third
prism I K L, it shall be divided so as to form upon any white body
P Q the usual colours, violet at m, blue at n, green at o, yellow at r,
and red at s. But because it never happens that the two adjacent
surfaces E F and G I perfectly touch, part only of the light incident
upon the surface E F shall be transmitted, and part shall be
reflected. Let now the reflected part be received by a fourth prism
Δ Θ Λ, and passing through it paint upon a white body Ζ Γ the
colours of the prism, red at t, yellow at u, green at w, blue at x,
violet at y. If the prisms D E F, G H I be slowly turned about while
they remain contiguous, the colours upon the body P Q shall not
sensibly change their situation, till such time as the rays become
pretty oblique to the surface E F; but then the light incident upon
the surface E F shall begin to be wholly reflected. And first of all the
violet light shall be wholly reflected, and thereupon will disappear at
m, appearing instead thereof at y, and increasing the violet light
falling there, the other colours remaining as before. If the prisms
D E F, G H I be turned a little farther about, that the incident rays
become yet more inclined to the surface E F, the blue shall be totally
reflected, and shall disappear in n, but appear at x by making the
colour there more intense. And the same may be continued, till all
the colours are successively removed from the surface P Q to Ζ Γ.
But in any case, suppose when the violet and the blue have forsaken
the surface P Q, and appear upon the surface Ζ Γ, Ζ Γ, the green,
yellow, and red only remaining upon the surface P Q; if the light be
received upon a paper held any where in its whole passage between
the light’s coming out of the prisms D E F, G I H and its incidence
upon the prism I K L, it shall appear of the colour compounded of all
the colours seen upon P Q; and the reflected ray, received upon a
piece of white paper held any where between the prisms D E F and
Δ Θ Σ shall exhibit the colour compounded of those the surface P Q
is deprived of mixed with the sun’s light: whereas before any of the
light was reflected from the surface E F, the rays between the prisms
G H I and I K L would appear white; as will likewise the reflected ray
both before and after the total reflection, provided the difference of
refraction by the surfaces D F and D E be inconsiderable. I call here
the sun’s light white, as I have all along done; but it is more exact to
ascribe to it something of a yellowish tincture, occasioned by the
brighter colours abounding in it; which caution is necessary in
examining the colours of the reflected beam, when all the violet and
blue are in it: for this yellowish turn of the sun’s light causes the
blue not to be quite so visible in it, as it should be, were the light
perfectly white; but makes the beam of light incline rather towards a
pale white.
 C h a p. II.
Of the properties of BODIES, upon
which their COLOURS depend.

A
FTER having shewn in the last chapter, that the difference between the
colours of bodies viewed in open day-light is only this, that some
bodies are disposed to reflect rays of one colour in the greatest
plenty, and other bodies rays of some other colour; order now
requires us to examine more particularly into the property of bodies,
which gives them this difference. But this our author shews to be
nothing more, than the different magnitude of the particles, which
compose each body: this I question not will appear no small paradox.
And indeed this whole chapter will contain scarce any assertions, but
what will be almost incredible, though the arguments for them are so
strong and convincing, that they force our assent. In the former
chapter have been explained properties of light, not in the least thought
of before our author’s discovery of them; yet are they not difficult to
admit, as soon as experiments are known to give proof of their reality;
but some of the propositions to be stated here will, I fear, be accounted
almost past belief; notwithstanding that the arguments, by which they
are established are unanswerable. For it is proved by our author, that
bodies are rendered transparent by the minuteness of their pores, and
become opake by having them large; and more, that the most
transparent body by being reduced to a great thinness will become less
pervious to the light.
 2. B u t whereas it had been the received opinion, and yet remains
so among all who have not studied this philosophy, that light is
reflected from bodies by its impinging against their solid parts,
rebounding from them, as a tennis ball or other elastic substance would
do, when struck against any hard and resisting surface; it will be proper
to begin with declaring our author’s sentiment concerning this, who
shews by many arguments that reflection cannot be caused by any
such means[295]: some few of his proofs I shall set down, referring the
reader to our author himself for the rest.
3. I t is well known, that when light falls upon any transparent body,
glass for instance, part of it is reflected and part transmitted; for which
it is ready to account, by saying that part of the light enters the pores
of the glass, and part impinges upon its solid parts. But when the
transmitted light arrives at the farther surface of the glass, in passing
out of glass into air there is as strong a reflection caused, or rather
something stronger. Now it is not to be conceived, how the light should
find as many solid parts in the air to strike against as in the glass, or
even a greater number of them. And to augment the difficulty, if water
be placed behind the glass, the reflection becomes much weaker. Can
we therefore say, that water has fewer solid parts for the light to strike
against, than the air? And if we should, what reason can be given for
the reflection’s being stronger, when the air by the air-pump is removed
from behind the glass, than when the air receives the rays of light.
Besides the light may be so inclined to the hinder surface of the glass,
that it shall wholly be reflected, which happens when the angle which
the ray makes with the surface does not exceed about 49⅓ degrees;
but if the inclination be a very little increased, great part of the light will
be transmitted; and how the light in one case should meet with nothing
but the solid parts of the air, and by so small a change of its inclination
find pores in great plenty, is wholly inconceivable. It cannot be said,
that the light is reflected by striking against the solid parts of the
surface of the glass; because without making any change in that
surface, only by placing water contiguous to it instead of air, great part
of that light shall be transmitted, which could find no passage through
the air. Moreover in the last experiment recited in the preceding
chapter, when by turning the prisms D E F, G H I, the blue light became
wholly reflected, while the rest was mostly transmitted, no possible
reason can be assigned, why the blue-making rays should meet with
nothing but the solid parts of the air between the prisms, and the rest
of the light in the very same obliquity find pores in abundance. Nay
farther, when two glasses touch each other, no reflection at all is made;
though it does not in the least appear, how the rays should avoid the
solid parts of glass, when contiguous to other glass, any more than
when contiguous to air. But in the last place upon this supposition it is
not to be comprehended, how the most polished substances could
reflect the light in that regular manner we find they do; for when a
polished looking glass is covered over with quicksilver, we cannot
suppose the particles of light so much larger than those of the
quicksilver that they should not be scattered as much in reflection, as a
parcel of marbles thrown down upon a rugged pavement. The only
cause of so uniform and regular a reflection must be some more secret
cause, uniformly spread over the whole surface of the glass.
4. B u t now, since the reflection of light from bodies does not
depend upon its impinging against their solid parts, some other reason
must be sought for. And first it is past doubt that the least parts of
almost all bodies are transparent, even the microscope shewing as
much[296]; besides that it may be experienced by this method. Take
any thin plate of the opakest body, and apply it to a small hole
designed for the admission of light into a darkened room; however
opake that body may seem in open day-light, it shall under these
circumstances sufficiently discover its transparency, provided only the
body be very thin. White metals indeed do not easily shew themselves
transparent in these trials, they reflecting almost all the light incident
upon them at their first superficies; the cause of which will appear in
what follows[297]. But yet these substances, when reduced into parts of
extraordinary minuteness by being dissolved in aqua fortis or the like
corroding liquors do also become transparent.
5. S i n c e therefore the light finds free passage through the least
parts of bodies, let us consider the largeness of their pores, and we
shall find, that whenever a ray of light has passed through any particle
of a body, and is come to its farther surface, if it finds there another
particle contiguous, it will without interruption pass into that particle;
just as light will pass through one piece of glass into another piece in
contact with it without any impediment, or any part being reflected: but
as the light in passing out of glass, or any other transparent body, shall
part of it be reflected back, if it enter into air or other transparent body
of a different density from that it passes out of; the same thing will
happen in the light’s passage through any particle of a body, whenever
at its exit out of that particle it meets no other particle contiguous, but
must enter into a pore, for in this case it shall not all pass through, but
part of it be reflected back. Thus will the light, every time it enters a
pore, be in part reflected; so that nothing more seems necessary to
opacity, than that the particles, which compose any body, touch but in
very few places, and that the pores of it are numerous and large, so
that the light may in part be reflected from it, and the other part, which
enters too deep to be returned out of the body, by numerous
reflections may be stifled and lost[298]; which in all probability happens,
as often as it impinges against the solid part of the body, all the light
which does so not being reflected back, but stopt, and deprived of any
farther motion[299].
6. T h i s notion of opacity is greatly confirmed by the observation,
that opake bodies become transparent by filling up the pores with any
substance of near the same density with their parts. As when paper is
wet with water or oyl; when linnen cloth is either dipt in water, oyled,
or varnished; or the oculus mundi stone steeped in water[300]. All which
experiments confirm both the first assertion, that light is not reflected
by striking upon the solid parts of bodies; and also the second, that its
passage is obstructed by the reflections it undergoes in the pores; since
we find it in these trials to pass in greater abundance through bodies,
when the number of their solid parts is increased, only by taking away
in great measure those reflections; which filling the pores with a
substance of near the same density with the parts of the body will do.
Besides as filling the pores of a dark body makes it transparent; so on
the other hand evacuating the pores of a body transparent, or
separating the parts of such a body, renders it opake. As salts or wet
paper by being dried, glass by being reduced to powder or the surface
made rough; and it is well known that glass vessels discover cracks in
them by their opacity. Just so water itself becomes impervious to the
light by being formed into many small bubbles, whether in froth, or by
being mixed and agitated with any quantity of a liquor with which it will
not incorporate, such as oyl of turpentine, or oyl olive.
7. A c e r t a i n electrical experiment made by Mr. Hauksbee may not
perhaps be useless to clear up the present speculation, by shewing that
something more is necessary besides mere porosity for transmitting
freely other fine substances. The experiment is this; that a glass cane
rubbed till it put forth its electric quality would agitate leaf brass
inclosed under a glass vessel, though not at so great a distance, as if
no body had intervened; yet the same cane would lose all its influence
on the leaf brass by the interposition of a piece of the finest muslin,
whose pores are immensely larger and more patent than those of glass.
8. T h u s I have endeavoured to smooth my way, as much as I
could, to the unfolding yet greater secrets in nature; for I shall now
proceed to shew the reason why bodies appear of different colours. My
reader no doubt will be sufficiently surprized, when I inform him that
the knowledge of this is deduced from that ludicrous experiment, with
which children divert themselves in blowing bubbles of water made
tenacious by the solution of soap. And that these bubbles, as they
gradually grow thinner and thinner till they break, change successively
their colours from the same principle, as all natural bodies preserve
theirs.
9. O u r author after preparing water with soap, so as to render it
very tenacious, blew it up into a bubble, and placing it under a glass,
that it might not be irregularly agitated by the air, observed as the
water by subsiding changed the thickness of the bubble, making it
gradually less and less till the bubble broke; there successively
appeared colours at the top of the bubble, which spread themselves
into rings surrounding the top and descending more and more, till they
vanished at the bottom in the same order in which they appeared[301].
The colours emerged in this order: first red, then blue; to which
succeeded red a second time, and blue immediately followed; after that
red a third time, succeeded by blue; to which followed a fourth red, but
succeeded by green; after this a more numerous order of colours, first
red, then yellow, next green, and after that blue, and at last purple;
then again red, yellow, green, blue, violet followed each other in order;
and in the last place red, yellow, white, blue; to which succeeded a
dark spot, which reflected scarce any light, though our author found it
did make some very obscure reflection, for the image of the sun or a
candle might be faintly discerned upon it; and this last spot spread
itself more and more, till the bubble at last broke. These colours were
not simple and uncompounded colours, like those which are exhibited
by the prism, when due care is taken to separate them; but were made
by a various mixture of those simple colours, as will be shewn in the
next chapter: whence these colours, to which I have given the name of
blue, green, or red, were not all alike, but differed as follows. The blue,
which appeared next the dark spot, was a pure colour, but very faint,
resembling the sky-colour; the white next to it a very strong and
intense white, brighter much than the white, which the bubble
reflected, before any of the colours appeared. The yellow which
preceded this was at first pretty good, but soon grew dilute; and the
red which went before the yellow at first gave a tincture of scarlet
inclining to violet, but soon changed into a brighter colour; the violet of
the next series was deep with little or no redness in it; the blue a brisk
colour, but came much short of the blue in the next order; the green
was but dilute and pale; the yellow and red were very bright and full,
the best of all the yellows which appeared among any of the colours: in
the preceding orders the purple was reddish, but the blue, as was just
now said, the brightest of all; the green pretty lively better than in the
order which appeared before it, though that was a good willow green;
the yellow but small in quantity, though bright; the red of this order not
very pure: those which appeared before yet more obscure, being very
dilute and dirty; as were likewise the three first blues.
10. N o w it is evident, that these colours arose at the top of the
bubble, as it grew by degrees thinner and thinner: but what the
express thickness of the bubble was, where each of these colours
appeared upon it, could not be determined by these experiments; but
was found by another means, viz. by taking the object glass of a long
telescope, which is in a small degree convex, and placing it upon a flat
glass, so as to touch it in one point, and then water being put between
them, the same colours appeared as in the bubble, in the form of
circles or rings surrounding the point where the glasses touched, which
appeared black for want of any reflection from it, like the top of the
bubble when thinnest[302]: next to this spot lay a blue circle, and next
without that a white one; and so on in the same order as before,
reckoning from the dark spot. And henceforward I shall speak of each
colour, as being of the first, second, or any following order, as it is the
first, second, or any following one, counting from the black spot in the
center of these rings; which is contrary to the order in which I must
have mentioned them, if I should have reputed them the first, second,
or third, &c. in order, as they arise after one another upon the top of
the bubble.
11. But now by measuring the diameters of each of these rings, and
knowing the convexity of the telescope glass, the thickness of the water
at each of those rings may be determined with great exactness: for
instance the thickness of it, where the white light of the first order is
reflected, is about 3⅞ such parts, of which an inch contains
1000000[303]. And this measure gives the thickness of the bubble,
where it appeared of this white colour, as well as of the water between
the glasses; though the transparent body which surrounds the water in
these two cases be very different: for our author found, that the
condition of the ambient body would not alter the species of the colour
at all, though it might its strength and brightness; for pieces of
Muscovy glass, which were so thin as to appear coloured by being wet
with water, would have their colours faded and made less bright
thereby; but he could not observe their species at all to be changed. So
that the thickness of any transparent body determines its colour,
whatever body the light passes through in coming to it[304].
12. B u t it was found that different transparent bodies would not
under the same thicknesses exhibit the same colours: for if the
forementioned glasses were laid upon each other without any water
between their surfaces, the air itself would afford the same colours as
the water, but more expanded, insomuch that each ring had a larger
diameter, and all in the same proportion. So that the thickness of the
air proper to each colour was in the same proportion larger, than the
thickness of the water appropriated to the same[305].
13. I f we examine with care all the circumstances of these colours,
which will be enumerated in the next chapter, we shall not be surprized,
that our author takes them to bear a great analogy to the colours of
natural bodies[306]. For the regularity of those various and strange
appearances relating to them, which makes the most mysterious part of
the action between light and bodies, as the next chapter will shew, is
sufficient to convince us that the principle, from which they flow, is of
the greatest importance in the frame of nature; and therefore without
question is designed for no less a purpose than to give bodies their
various colours, to which end it seems very fitly suited. For if any such
transparent substance of the thickness proper to produce any one
colour should be cut into slender threads, or broken into fragments, it
does not appear but these should retain the same colour; and a heap
of such fragments should frame a body of that colour. So that this is
without dispute the cause why bodies are of this or the other colour,
that the particles of which they are composed are of different sizes.
Which is farther confirmed by the analogy between the colours of thin
plates, and the colours of many bodies. For example, these plates do
not look of the same colour when viewed obliquely, as when seen
direct; for if the rings and colours between a convex and plane glass
are viewed first in a direct manner, and then at different degrees of
obliquity, the rings will be observed to dilate themselves more and more
as the obliquity is increased[307]; which shews that the transparent
substance between the glasses does not exhibit the same colour at the
same thickness in all situations of the eye: just so the colours in the
very same part of a peacock’s tail change, as the tail changes posture
in respect of the sight. Also the colours of silks, cloths, and other
substances, which water or oyl can intimately penetrate, become faint
and dull by the bodies being wet with such fluids, and recover their
brightness again when dry; just as it was before said that plates of
Muscovy glass grew faint and dim by wetting. To this may be added,
that the colours which painters use will be a little changed by being
ground very elaborately, without question by the diminution of their
parts. All which particulars, and many more that might be extracted
from our author, give abundant proof of the present point. I shall only
subjoin one more: these transparent plates transmit through them all
the light they do not reflect; so that when looked through they exhibit
those colours, which result from the depriving white light of the colour
reflected. This may commodiously be tryed by the glasses so often
mentioned; which if looked through exhibit coloured rings as by
reflected light, but in a contrary order; for the middle spot, which in the
other view appears black for want of reflected light, now looks perfectly
white, opposite to the blue circle; next without this spot the light
appears tinged with a yellowish red; where the white circle appeared
before, it now seems dark; and so of the rest[308]. Now in the same
manner, the light transmitted through foliated gold into a darkened
room appears greenish by the loss of the yellow light, which gold
reflects.
14. H e n c e it follows, that the colours of bodies give a very probable
ground for making conjecture concerning the magnitude of their
constituent particles[309]. My reason for calling it a conjecture is, its
being difficult to fix certainly the order of any colour. The green of
vegetables our author judges to be of the third order, partly because of
the intenseness of their colour; and partly from the changes they suffer
when they wither, turning at first into a greenish or more perfect
yellow, and afterwards some of them to an orange or red; which
changes seem to be effected from their ringing particles growing
denser by the exhalation of their moisture, and perhaps augmented
likewise by the accretion of the earthy and oily parts of that moisture.
How the mentioned colours should arise from increasing the bulk of
those particles, is evident; seeing those colours lie without the ring of
green between the glasses, and are therefore formed where the
transparent substance which reflects them is thicker. And that the
augmentation of the density of the colorific particles will conspire to the
production of the same effect, will be evident; if we remember what
was said of the different size of the rings, when air was included
between the glasses, from their size when water was between them;
which shewed that a substance of a greater density than another gives
the same colour at a less thickness. Now the changes likely to be
wrought in the density or magnitude of the parts of vegetables by
withering seem not greater, than are sufficient to change their colour
into those of the same order; but the yellow and red of the fourth order
are not full enough to agree with those, into which these substances
change, nor is the green of the second sufficiently good to be the
colour of vegetables; so that their colour must of necessity be of the
third order.
 15. T h e blue colour of syrup of violets our author supposes to be of
the third order; for acids, as vinegar, with this syrup change it red, and
salt of tartar or other alcalies mixed therewith turn it green. But if the
blue colour of the syrup were of the second order, the red colour, which
acids by attenuating its parts give it, must be of the first order, and the
green given it by alcalies by incrassating its particles should be of the
second; whereas neither of those colours is perfect enough, especially
the green, to answer those produced by these changes; but the red
may well enough be allowed to be of the second order, and the green
of the third; in which case the blue must be likewise of the third order.
16. T h e azure colour of the skies our author takes to be of the first
order, which requires the smallest particles of any colour, and therefore
most like to be exhibited by vapours, before they have sufficiently
coalesced to produce clouds of other colours.
17. T h e most intense and luminous white is of the first order, if less
strong it is a mixture of the colours of all the orders. Of the latter sort
he takes the colour of linnen, paper, and such like substances to be; but
white metals to be of the former sort. The arguments for it are these.
The opacity of all bodies has been shewn to arise from the number and
strength of the reflections made within them; but all experiments shew,
that the strongest reflection is made at those surfaces, which intercede
transparent bodies differing most in density. Among other instances of
this, the experiments before us afford one; for when air only is included
between the glasses, the coloured rings are not only more dilated, as
has before been said, than when water is between them; but are
likewise much more luminous and bright. It follows therefore, that
whatever medium pervades the pores of bodies, if so be there is any,
those substances must be most opake, the density of whose parts
differs most from the density of the medium, which fills their pores. But
it has been sufficiently proved in the former part of this tract, that there
is no very dense medium lodging in, at least pervading at liberty the
pores of bodies. And it is farther proved by the present experiments.
For when air is inclosed by the denser substance of glass, the rings
dilate themselves, as has been said, by being viewed obliquely; this
they do so very much, that at different obliquities the same thickness of
air will exhibit all sorts of colours. The bubble of water, though
surrounded with the thinner substance of air, does likewise change its
colour by being viewed obliquely; but not any thing near so much, as in
the other case; for in that the same colour might be seen, when the
rings were viewed most obliquely, at more than twelve times the
thickness it appeared at under a direct view; whereas in this other case
the thickness was never found considerably above half as much again.
Now the colours of bodies not depending only on the light, that is
incident upon them perpendicularly, but likewise upon that, which falls
on them in all degrees of obliquity; if the medium surrounding their
particles were denser than those particles, all sorts of colours must of
necessity be reflected from them so copiously, as would make the
colours of all bodies white, or grey, or at best very dilute and imperfect.
But on the other hand, if the medium in the pores of bodies be much
rarer than their particles, the colour reflected will be so little changed
by the obliquity of the rays, that the colour produced by the rays, which
fall near the perpendicular, may so much abound in the reflected light,
as to give the body their colour with little allay. To this may be added,
that when the difference of the contiguous transparent substances is
the same, a colour reflected from the denser substance reduced into a
thin plate and surrounded by the rarer will be more brisk, than the
same colour will be, when reflected from a thin plate formed of the
rarer substance, and surrounded by the denser; as our author
experienced by blowing glass very thin at a lamp furnace, which
exhibited in the open air more vivid colours, than the air does between
two glasses. From these considerations it is manifest, that if all other
circumstances are alike, the densest bodies will be most opake. But it
was observed before, that these white metals can hardly be made so
thin, except by being dissolved in corroding liquors, as to be rendred
transparent; though none of them are so dense as gold, which proves
their great opacity to have some other cause besides their density; and
none is more fit to produce this, than such a size of their particles, as
qualifies them to reflect the white of the first order.
18. F o r producing black the particles ought to be smaller than for
exhibiting any of the colours, viz. of a size answering to the thickness of
the bubble, where by reflecting little or no light it appears colourless;
but yet they must not be too small, for that will make them transparent
through deficiency of reflections in the inward parts of the body,
sufficient to stop the light from going through it; but they must be of a
size bordering upon that disposed to reflect the faint blue of the first
order, which affords an evident reason why blacks usually partake a
little of that colour. We see too, why bodies dissolved by fire or
putrefaction turn black: and why in grinding glasses upon copper plates
the dust of the glass, copper, and sand it is ground with, become very
black: and in the last place why these black substances communicate
so easily to others their hue; which is, that their particles by reason of
the great minuteness of them easily overspread the grosser particles of
others.
19. I s h a l l now finish this chapter with one remark of the
exceeding great porosity in bodies necessarily required in all that has
here been said; which, when duly considered, must appear very
surprizing; but perhaps it will be matter of greater surprize, when I
affirm that the sagacity of our author has discovered a method, by
which bodies may easily become so; nay how any the least portion of
matter may be wrought into a body of any assigned dimensions how
great so ever, and yet the pores of that body none of them greater,
than any the smallest magnitude proposed at pleasure; notwithstanding
which the parts of the body shall so touch, that the body itself shall be
hard and solid[310]. The manner is this: suppose the body be
compounded of particles of such figures, that when laid together the
pores found between them may be equal in bigness to the particles;
how this may be effected, and yet the body be hard and solid, is not
difficult to understand; and the pores of such a body may be made of
any proposed degree of smallness. But the solid matter of a body so
framed will take up only half the space occupied by the body; and if
each constituent particle be composed of other less particles according
to the same rule, the solid parts of such a body will be but a fourth part
of its bulk; if every one of these lesser particles again be compounded
in the same manner, the solid parts of the whole body shall be but one
eighth of its bulk; and thus by continuing the composition the solid
parts of the body may be made to bear as small a proportion to the
whole magnitude of the body, as shall be desired, notwithstanding the
body will be by the contiguity of its parts capable of being in any
degree hard. Which shews that this whole globe of earth, nay all the
known bodies in the universe together, as far as we know, may be
compounded of no greater a portion of solid matter, than might be
reduced into a globe of one inch only in diameter, or even less. We see
therefore how by this means bodies may easily be made rare enough to
transmit light, with all that freedom pellucid bodies are found to do.
Though what is the real structure of bodies we yet know not.
 Chap. III.
Of the Refraction, Reflection, and
Inflection of Light.

T
HUS much of the colours of natural bodies; our method now
leads us to speculations yet greater, no less than to lay open
the causes of all that has hitherto been related. For it must in
this chapter be explained, how the prism separates the colours
of the sun’s light, as we found in the first chapter; and why the thin
transparent plates discoursed of in the last chapter, and
consequently the particles of coloured bodies, reflect that diversity of
colours only by being of different thicknesses.
2. F o r the first it is proved by our author, that the colours of the
sun’s light are manifested by the prism, from the rays undergoing
different degrees of refraction; that the violet-making rays, which go
to the upper part of the coloured image in the first experiment of the
first chapter, are the most refracted; that the indigo-making rays are
refracted, or turned out of their course by passing through the
prism, something less than the violet-making rays, but more than the
blue-making rays; and the blue-making rays more than the green;
the green-making rays more than the yellow; the yellow more than
the orange; and the orange-making rays more than the red-making,
which are least of all refracted. The first proof of this, that rays of
different colours are refracted unequally is this. If you take any body,
and paint one half of it red and the other half blue, then upon
viewing it through a prism those two parts shall appear separated
from each other; which can be caused no otherwise than by the
prism’s refracting the light of one half more than the light of the
other half. But the blue half will be most refracted; for if the body be
seen through the prism in such a situation, that the body shall
appear lifted upwards by the refraction, as a body within a bason of
water, in the experiment mentioned in the first chapter, appeared to
be lifted up by the refraction of the water, so as to be seen at a
greater distance than when the bason is empty, then shall the blue
part appear higher than the red; but if the refraction of the prism be
the contrary way, the blue part shall be depressed more than the
other. Again, after laying fine threads of black silk across each of the
colours, and the body well inlightened, if the rays coming from it be
received upon a convex glass, so that it may by refracting the rays
cast the image of the body upon a piece of white paper held beyond
the glass; then it will be seen that the black threads upon the red
part of the image, and those upon the blue part, do not at the same
time appear distinctly in the image of the body projected by the
glass; but if the paper be held so, that the threads on the blue part
may distinctly appear, the threads cannot be seen distinct upon the
red part; but the paper must be drawn farther off from the convex
glass to make the threads on this part visible; and when the distance
is great enough for the threads to be seen in this red part, they
become indistinct in the other. Whence it appears that the rays
proceeding from each point of the blue part of the body are sooner
united again by the convex glass than the rays which come from
each point of the red parts[311]. But both these experiments prove
that the blue-making rays, as well in the small refraction of the
convex glass, as in the greater refraction of the prism, are more
bent, than the red-making rays.
3. T h i s seems already to explain the reason of the coloured
spectrum made by refracting the sun’s light with a prism, though our
author proceeds to examine that in particular, and proves that the
different coloured rays in that spectrum are in different degrees
refracted; by shewing how to place the prism in such a posture, that
if all the rays were refracted in the same manner, the spectrum
should of necessity be round: whereas in that case if the angle made
by the two surfaces of the prism, through which the light passes,
that is the angle D F E in fig. 126, be about 63 or 64 degrees, the
image instead of being round shall be near five times as long as
broad; a difference enough to shew a great inequality in the
refractions of the rays, which go to the opposite extremities of the
image. To leave no scruple unremoved, our author is very particular
in shewing by a great number of experiments, that this inequality of
refraction is not casual, and that it does not depend upon any
irregularities of the glass; no nor that the rays are in their passage
through the prism each split and divided; but on the contrary that
every ray of the sun has its own peculiar degree of refraction proper
to it, according to which it is more or less refracted in passing
through pellucid substances always in the same manner[312]. That
the rays are not split and multiplied by the refraction of the prism,
the third of the experiments related in our first chapter shews very
clearly; for if they were, and the length of the spectrum in the first
refraction were thereby occasioned, the breadth should be no less
dilated by the cross refraction of the second prism; whereas the
breadth is not at all increased, but the image is only thrown into an
oblique posture by the upper part of the rays which were at first
more refracted than the under part, being again turned farthest out
of their course. But the experiment most expressly adapted to prove
this regular diversity of refraction is this, which follows[313]. Two
boards A B, C D (in fig. 130.) being erected in a darkened room at a
proper distance, one of them A B being near the window-shutter E F,
a space only being left for the prism G H I to be placed between
them; so that the rays entring at the hole M of the window-shutter
may after passing through the prism be trajected through a smaller
hole K made in the board A B, and passing on from thence go out at
another hole L made in the board C D of the same size as the hole K,
and small enough to transmit the rays of one colour only at a time;
let another prism N O P be placed after the board C D to receive the
rays passing through the holes K and L, and after refraction by that
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