1855.] on Electric Conductimi. 129 



case when presented by globes of metal. Our further and future 

 knowledge may show some such state ; but in respect of our present 

 distinctive views of conduction proper and electrolytic conduction, 

 it may be remarked that such discovery is just as likely to coincide 

 with the former as with the latter view, though it most probably 

 would alter and correct both. 



Falling back upon the consideration of the particles between 

 € and n, we find, that whether we consider them as respects the 

 current which has passed through them, or the charge which they 

 have taken, they form a continuous series ; the particle at e has had 

 most current, that at n none, that at r a moderate current ; and 

 there are particles which must have transmitted every intermediate 

 degree. So with regard to charge ; it is highest at w, nothing at 

 c, and every intermediate degree occurs between the two. Then 

 with respect to these superficial particles, they hold all the charge 

 that exists, and therefore all the electricity which has been con- 

 ducted is in them ; consequently all the electrolytic results must be 

 there ; and that would be the case, even though for the shell we 

 were to substitute a sphere of water. For, if those particles which 

 have had more current through them than others be supposed to 

 have more of the electrolytic results about them than the others, 

 then that electricity which is found associated chiefly, if not 

 altogether, with these others, could have reached them only by 

 conduction proper, which for the moment is assumed to be non- 

 existent. So, to favour the electrolytic argument, we will consider 

 the conduction as ending at, and the electrolytic results as summed 

 up in, these superficial particles, passing for the present the former 

 objection that though the electricity has reached, it has not gone 

 through, these particles. Taking, therefore, a particle at r, and con- 

 sidering its electrolytic condition as proportionate to the electricity 

 which has arrived at that particle, and given it charge, we may then 

 assume, for we have the power of diminishing the inductive action 

 in any degree, that the electricity, the conduction of which has 

 ceased upon the particle that was there has been just enough to 

 decompose it, and has left what was the under but is now the 

 surface particle, charged. In that case, some other particle, in a 

 higher state of charge, and nearer to w, as at s, will have had 

 enough electricity conducted towards its place to decompose two 

 particles of water ; — but it is manifest that this cannot be the next 

 particle to that at r, but that a great number of other particles in 

 intermediate states of charge must exist between r and s. Now the 

 question is, how can these particles become intermediately charged 

 by virtue of electrolytic conduction only ? Electrolytic action is 

 definite, and the very theory of electrolytic conduction assumes that 

 the particles of oxygen and hydrogen as they travel convey not a 

 variable but a perfectly definite amount of power onward in its 

 course, which amount they cannot divide, but must take at once 

 from a like particle, and give at once to another like particle. How 



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