One of the ultimate aims of the present investigations of refractive dispersion is to elucidate the phenomenon of “optical exaltation” in organic compounds containing conjugated systems of alternate single and double bonds, as observed by Gladstone in 1881 and defined by Brühl in 1907. A first step was taken in Part IV (Allsopp 1934
a
) when dispersion curves were plotted over a wide range of wave-lengths for two compounds of the
cyclohexane
series, viz.
cyclohexene
(I), which contains a single olefinic double bond, and
cyclohexadiene
(II), with two conjugated olefinic double bonds: