ABSTRACT
In 1802 a youthful Thomas Young, British physician and scientist, had the audacity to resuscitate the wave theory of light (Young 1802). For this he was excoriated by Henry Brougham (1803) in the Edinburgh Review. Brougham, a defender of the Newtonian particle theory, asserted that Young's paper was “destitute of every species of merit” because it was not based on inductions from observations but involved simply the formulation of hypotheses to explain various optical phenomena. And, Brougham continued:
A discovery in mathematics, or a successful induction of facts, when once completed, cannot be too soon given to the world. But... an hypothesis is a work of fancy, useless in science, and fit only for the amusement of a vacant hour. (1803, p. 451)
