原文：The efforts that have been made to explainoptical phenomena by means of the hypothesis of a medium having the same physicalcharacter as an elastic solid bodyled, in thefirst instance, tothe understanding of aconcrete example of a mediumwhichcantransmit transverse vibrations, and at a laterstagetothe definite conclusionthatthere is noluminiferous medium havingthe physical character assumed in the hypothesis.译文：解释光学现象的努力靠假定有一种具有与弹性固体相同的物理性质的介质完成。这种尝试的结果，最初，具体结论的得出是人们以为有一种能传输横向振动的媒介,那种物理性质的发光媒介并不存在。