An elementary treatise on optics Part II containing the higher propositions with their applications to the more perfect forms of instruments.

Historical Significance: Armed with a photometer orginally designed for evaluating telescopes, Richard Potter in the early 1830s measured the reflective power of metallic and glass mirrors. Because he found significant discrepancies between his measurements and Fresnel's predictions, he developed doubts concerning the wave theory. Potter also wrote 'Mathematical considerations on the problem of the rainbow : shewing it to belong to physical optics'. (1836), 'An elementary treatise on optics. Part 1, Containing all the requisite propositions carried to first approximations ; with the construction of optical instruments for the use of junior university students' (1851), and 'Physical optics, or The nature and properties of light : a descriptive and experimental treatise' (1856)