On Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter. 421 



plete with spaces, so all bodies, without exception, would be 

 conductors, however much their natures might otherwise 

 differ. This conclusion is manifestly inevitable, for to deny 

 it would be to impute different qualities to different parts of 

 space. Not so inevitable, however, is the next conclusion 

 which I have to notice : "Metal is a conductor; but," says 

 Mr. Faraday, " how can this be except space be a conductor? 

 for it is the only continuous part of the metal ; space therefore 

 (holding the theory of solid atoms) must be a conductor, or 

 else the metals could not conduct." That gentleman there- 

 fore sees no alternative but in believing that " the reasoning 

 ends in a subversion of the theory (of solid atoms) alto- 



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1 his second conclusion would be as unavoidable as the pre- 

 ceding one, provided we knew, as a fact, that absolute con- 

 tinuity is necessary to electrical conduction ; Mr. Faraday 

 has assumed this to be the case, but I am not aware that any- 

 thing has ever been observed in the nature of matter from 

 which it can be inferred. By the old maxim, that matter can- 

 not act where it is not^ absolute continuity is made necessary 

 to conduction ; but this maxim is itself an assumption needing 

 the evidence of facts, and therefore it may not be adduced as 

 a proof of any other assumption. 



The chief cause why I have thought it necessary thus to 

 attempt the vindication of the theory of atoms from a charge 

 of inconsistency, is because I think there is a way of looking 

 at that theory, by which the conducting and insulating pro- 

 perties of bodies appear more intelligible than on other doc- 

 trines ; and this without involving any other assumption (be- 

 yond the mere existence of the atoms) than the hypothesis 

 that different sorts of atoms are naturally associated with wi- 

 equal quantities of electricity. The degree of probability 

 attaching to this hypothesis may be estimated by reflecting 

 that if we had to assume its untruthfulness, that is to saj', that 

 all atoms, however unlike in their natures, had equal quan- 

 tities of electricity naturally combined with them, the assump- 

 tion might be deemed much more questionable. I will now 

 beg permission to give an outline of the view I have taken of 

 the theory of atoms, so far as it relates to electrical conduction 

 and insulation,;; and :%s it is; simple^ jt, ra^y3i)§idQ|j^iij».ia,Jfew 



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In his " Researches," Mr. Faraday has adduced an expe- 

 riment to prove that the quantity of electricity naturally 

 combined with matter is enormously great ; after making every 

 allowance for the difficulty of a correct estimation, we may 

 safely infer the quantity to be great enough to apportion to 



