XL. Observations and experiments on the light of bodies in a state of combustion

Abstract

The discussion which I now wish to lay before the Royal Society is nothing more than a series of facts, and of conclusions which seem to flow from those facts, and from an attention to the following data. I. That light is a body, and like all other bodies subject to the laws of attraction. II. That light is an heterogeneous body, and that the same attractive power operates with different degrees of force on its different parts. III. That the light which escapes from combustibles when decomposed by heat, or by any other means, was, previous to its escape, a component part of those substances.