2825,'] Mathematical Principles of Chemical Philosophy. 373 



separating them, they show either no signs of electricity, or are 

 electrified with the same power. The cause of this difference 

 is by no means apparent ; the power of induction is sometimes 

 conm^(^j^|^^to accaurit for such phenomena as these ; hovyever, 

 this rs only to nide a difficulty under a name of very doubtful 

 meaning and uncertain application. However, if such energies 

 exist, and b^ the catise of chemical changes, they must remaia 

 pe^r^janently and unchanged, after combination, as they con- 

 tinue in the case of the ribbons ; for then the attraction is per- 

 inaiient, and no electricity appears ; for if they be not unchange- 

 able, as the particles of matter themselves, then, as in the case 

 of conductors, contact produces an equilibrium, and there is no 

 attraction. If then energies do exist, the particles of all bodies, 

 .^ven of metals, must act upon each other as non-conductors ; 

 this may possibly be the case, for the conducting or the electric 

 power of bodies is not inherent or permanent ; glass, when 

 heated to redness is a conductor ; ice cooled considerably below 

 zero is a non-conductor : this property of bodies, therefore, 

 depends upon something foreign ; yet it is difficult to imagine 

 how the particles of^ metals can act upon each other as non- 

 conductors ; and if energies exist, this must be the case. Also 

 if electric energies be the cause of chemical combination, it 

 follows that no solid can be a simple substance, except we sup- 

 pose one force to produce cohesion, and another chemical 

 attraction; such a supposition is inadmissible, because we have 

 no evidence of the existence of such forces ; and likewise elec- 

 trical repulsion (a doubtful power) is generally supposed to be 

 as powerful as attraction, intensities being equal ; the force of 

 chemical attraction is usually more powerful than that of cohe- 

 sion ; therefore the action of electric energies must prevent any 

 simple substance from assuming a solid form* Other philoso- 

 phers suppose the existence of such a relation of chemicdl 

 ^tt^^action to electricity, that the intensity of the chemical attrac- 

 tion of the particles of matter determines their place in the 

 galvanic series; if this be the case, the electrical relations of 

 bodies may be taken as the measures of their chemical action. 

 This supposition is more free from hypothetical views than the 

 other, and is, therefore, entitled to prefereuce until Our know- 

 ledge shall be more precise. ' "''■ '•■ 



Every relation or analogy that can be clearly and definitely 

 made out between the force of gravity, chemical attractioii, 

 caloric, and electricity, is of the utmost importance to science, 

 because only by such facts can the laws of chemical action be 

 developed. Hitherto chemistry and the mathematical sciences 

 have been entirely insulated ; but such is the precision of its 

 phsenomena, that the laws by which chemical changes are pro- 

 d,uced must be as definite and as susceptible of geometrical 



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