Inquiries concerning the medium of light and the form of its molecules

MACVICAR, JOHN G. (1800-84). Inquiries concerning the medium of light and the form of its molecules. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1833. FIRST EDITION. 8 vo. Orig. blue boards, rebacked and repaired. Uncut. vii, (1, errata), 132 pp. Engraved folding frontisplate containing 42 figs. PRESENTATION COPY to the first professor of chemistry at King's College, London and friend of Faraday, John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), inventor of a new hygrometer and pyrometer and the Daniell cell. The cell maintained a continuous and even current without liberating hydrogen at the copper electrode. Macvicar's two-line holograph inscription is on the front flyleaf. A very good copy. Macvicar was educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh. This is an early work among his many books in science, philosophy, and religion. Sotheran/Zeitlinger, vol. 2, no. 11261 notes: "In order to explain the optical phenomena which were difficult or impossible to account for on the corpuscular theory, the author assumes light to consist of molecules with a crystalline structure emitted from the luminous body and travel in groups." Not in Brit. Opt. Assoc. Cat. or Lomb Lib. Cat.…