Boscovich and Theories of Light

Abstract

THE extract from the writings of Boscovich which Prof. Osborne quotes is interesting. Until the reason for the rectilinear propagation of light-waves was explained by the work of Young and Fresnel on interference, the difficulties of an undulatory theory were very great, and it is not surprising that Boscovich, like Newton, “sums up in favour of a corpuscular theory”. His attempt to combine with it some of the advantages of a wave theory as described by Prof. Osborne seems to me less successful than the method adopted by Newton.