Mémoire sur les phénomènes rotatoires opérés dans le cristal de Roche

Note:
Rara prima edizione. Importante opera in cui lo studioso francese, che aveva collaborato con Laplace, sviluppa gli studi sulla polarizzazione della luce. DSB: "In 1832 Biot recorded the property of a solution of tartaric acis of rotating polarized light, and he remarked on the anomalous dispersion it gave, the rotation begin greater for "les refrangible rays". In 1836 he presented to the Academy a memoir devoted entirily to the study of the rotatory power of tartaric acid under different conditions. He stressed that tartaric acid constituted an outstanding exception to his law of inverse squares (of wavelength). Biot accordingly divided optically active substances into two classes, those that obeyed his law and those that did not. He observed the crystalline forms of some salts of tartaric acid, but is was left to Pasteur to show the relationship between the crystalline form and the effect on polarized light. Biot was, significantly, an ardent champion of Pasteur at the beginning of his career." L'opera fu pubblicata a sè stante come estratto da: Mémoires Académie des Sciences, Tome XX. Poggendorff, I, col. 198; Gliozzi, St. Fisica, p. 209-11; Gillispie, I, pp. 136-40; DSB II, p. 139.