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ON CSCMtCAL AFFINITY. 



Statement of fact. If two metallic balls, A and B, be 

 placed near to eath other, and to a small cork ball, sus^ 

 pended by silk, and positively or nei^atively electrified, 

 -which may be called C ; and if A be connected with the 

 Earth, and B be positively or negatively electrified in a 

 greater degree than Ci A and B will both attract C: but 

 A will attract C w'lth greater fprcfe after it has been in con- 

 tact witii B, than before; and the contact of C with A wilt 

 augment the attraction between C and B. The eflrect is 

 precisely the same as would have arisen, had A and B been 

 both insulated, and differently electrified, and C connected 

 with the^ Earth. 

 Circumstances It is also to be remarked, that, although two bodies, ia 



xnay pteirent j^iffej-eat electrical states, be near td each other, it is very 

 the appearance >,^;. ; .' .... ^ 



•fattractwn. possible, that they may not mdicate attraction. If, fof 



instance, two fixed and insulated metallic bklls be electri- 

 fied, the one positively, the other negatively, and a email 

 \y\t of cork, suspended by eilk, be brought between them, 

 the attraction of the cork for one metallic ball may be juJ^ 

 sufficient to counteracl its attraction for the other. 



The preceding observations are Unconnected with any 

 Jiypothesis concerning the remote caUse of electrical phe- 

 nomena; and aie, iiideed, nbthing more than a general 

 Statement of facts, established by experiment. Electricity 

 is therefore a science, which his for its object phenomena 

 produced in consequetifce of a difference in the electncal 

 state of bodies, so situate, as to be within the sphere of 

 action of each other ; among which phenomena are certain 

 modifications of the attractive and repulsiVe forces, that 

 bodies ordinarily evince. £lectrical state, or electncal 

 energy, is the (Quality, to which such phenomena are re- 

 ferred. These conclusions are obv ously deduced fiom the 

 X artificial electrical states; but, if they do not equally apply 



to tlie natural electrical states of bodies, I confess I have 

 no idea of what is meant by this expression. 

 ^itdifferencto ^^^^' ^^' ^^^^ *^ Consideration of electrical phenomena 

 of electrical jn general, but more part cularly of those which occur 

 r^^^-wiih^he- during decomposition by galvanism, Mr. Davy thinks it 

 meal affinity probable, that difference of electrical state is identical 

 te<iui{ei pro«f. ^-^^ chemical affinity, and an essential property ©f mat- 

 ter. 



