ANALYSIS OF THE GALVANIC PILE. g55 



*f experiments, of which I shall only describe the part ne- - 



pessary to my subject. 



None of the phenomena observed in our common electri- None of its 

 cal experiments, namely, the charge and difcharge of the ^ly ™^,*;,,. 

 Leyden rial, the electric motions, the effects of the electro- ed before Vol 

 pJtorus and of the condenser, had been really explained, till la * 

 the inventor of the last two instruments, sig. Volta, had 

 formed his theory on the electric influences, which threw the 

 first true light on the modifications of the electric fluid ; and 

 which, in the course of various experiments I made to fol- 

 low it through all the electric phenomena, gave rise to the 

 system on the nature of the electric fluid, which I shall here 

 briefly state. 



This fluid, far from being a simple substance, is an asto- Nature of thv 

 nishing compound : and first, in its state which may be called c ectac m * 

 natural, that, 1 mean, in which it is diffused over all bodies, 

 it is found composed of two main parts, from which all the 

 above mentioned phenomena arise. One of these two con- 

 stituent ingredients of the electric fluid in this state is a sub- 

 stance, which, by itself, is not expansible (as in steam, also 

 an expansible fluid, there is a substance which is not expan- 

 sible by itself, namely water) ; this substance in the electric 

 fluid 1 have called electric matter; and its function, which I 

 shall soon point out, is very distinct. The other ingredient 

 is an excessively subtile fluid, which (mflre in steam) unit- 

 ing with the nonerpansiblc substance, produces the expansi- 

 bility of the aggregate. In my French works I have called 

 the \zitev fluide deferent ; but here 1 shall call it vector, a 

 ^hort word of the same import, signifying that it carries 

 along the electric matter (as, in steam, fire is the vector of 

 water). 



The electric vector instantly pervades all bodies, and 

 carries the electric matter through conductors, but not through 

 nonconductors, such as glass and resinous substances: when 

 a current of electric fluid arrives on one side of a lamina of 

 these substances, and its vector, in order to establish its own 

 equilibrium beyond it, pervades the lamina, it deposites the 

 electric matter on the surface of the latter, where it remains 

 adherent, till a current of vector pervades the lamina in the 

 opposite direction, or it is taken up slowly by the vector in 



the 



