On the nature of light

In a recent article in these Proceedings (1) Professor G. N. Lewis has suggested that the conflict between the quantum theory of light and the known facts of interference might be resolved by assuming that an atom never emits a quantum of light except to another atom, the possibility of transmission of the quantum being determined by the nature of the paths connecting the two atoms in such a manner that the transmission will not occur if forbidden by the known laws of interference. The idea is made more plausible by describing such transmissions with the help of Minkowski's four-dimensional geometry of relativity.