i^)l[!lf)vObservatio?is on a paper by Prof. Faraday concerning 

 ^jriMectric Conduction and the Nature of Matter. By Richard 



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1o aJiBq ins'iatiib <^o^Ric%ard TtmloTi Esql'"'^ «* ^^ bluow Jfi 

 ^''' ^ 'Sir, ' ""''^ Siii.f e.i (•J3v;)v/oir,4i!jj;jiv:.uu OS ioVL .09r,q« 

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 was published by you, expressing an opinion that the im- 

 material centres of force of Boscovich * have a greater claim 

 to be regarded as true than the solid atoms of Newton ; and 

 in which he represents his preference to result from the con- 

 templation of certain^cifs relating to electrical conduction and 

 insulation. In going over his arguments I have not arrived 

 at the same conclusion, owing to a difficulty in admitting an 

 assumption which I find mixed up with the facts. It will be 

 better to give Mr.Faraday's meaning in his own words: he says, 

 " The view of the atomic constitution of matter which I think 

 is most prevalent, is that which considers the atom as some- 

 thing material having a certain volume, upon which those 

 powers were impressed at the creation, which have given it, 

 from that time to the present, the capability of constituting, 

 when many atoms are congregated together into groups, the 

 different substances whose effects and propeities we observe. 

 These, though grouped and held together by their powers, do 

 not touch each other, but have intervening space, otherwise 

 pressure or cold could not make a body contract into a smaller 

 bulk, nor heat or tension make it larger; in liquids these 

 atoms or particles are free to move about one another, and 

 in vapours or gases they are also present, but removed very 

 much further apart, though still related to each other by 

 their powers If the view of the constitution of matter al- 

 ready referred to be assumed to be correct, and I may be 

 allowed to speak of the particles of matter and of the space 

 between them as two different things, then space must be 

 taken as the only continuous part, for the particles are con- 

 sidered as separated by space from each other." All this may 

 be accepted as descriptive of matter as it is regarded by the 

 theory of solidity ; and with this admission we proceed at once 

 to the main question, namely, to which of the two parts of a 

 body does its electrical conducting property belong ; does it 

 appertain to the centres of force themselves, or to the spaces 

 which envelope them ? I agree with Mr. Faraday that the 

 conducting property does not belong to space, because if it 



did, it would follow that as all bodies indiscriminately are )t^ 



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 [* See Priestley's "History of Vision," &c., and "Disquisitions on Matter 

 and Spirit," vol. i. p. 34, &c.— Ed.] 



