296 Mr. Gassiot on the relation of Electrical ^ Chemical Actions 



several seconds, I could not with the most delicate gold-leaf 

 electroscope obtain the slightest indication of it. 



28. Marianini went through a series of experiments, in 

 which he found that in no case was tension actually destroyed ; 

 but that it fell in proportion to the duration of the time during 

 which the circuit had been completed. My object now was 

 not, however, to complete the circuit; for I wished to test an 

 intermediate stage between actual insulation and actual com- 

 pletion of circuit, in order to discover the character of the 

 discharges effected by touching the respective terminals, or 

 rather their influence over the state of tension, into which the 

 whole series was thrown. I wished, for instance, to discover 

 whether the discharge I effected, threw the elements of the 

 battery back^ into the normal condition which prevailed ante- 

 cedent to the discharge ; or whether it threw ihemjorivard by 

 completing the act of chemical combination, the preparatory 

 state of which already existed; whether, for instance, mere 

 discharge, either by the earth or by completion of the circuit, 

 for an instant, is one small fraction of a current ; and, if so, 

 whether a current is not really a collection of discharges of 

 electricity of tension. 



29. For this purpose the following experiments were made : 

 a copper wire attached to N of the battery was connected with 

 the galvanometer, and this with the plate a of the double elec- 

 troscope, fig. 4. A platinum wire was attached to P of the 

 battery, the end of which rested on a piece of bibulous paper 

 saturated with a solution of iodide of potassium : another pla- 

 tinum wire, also resting on the paper, was connected with the 



Fig. 7. 



other plate b of the electroscope; by the mechanical arrange- 



