276 Mr. C. Binks on Electricity, 



will not alter the state of the fluid within the level surface 

 with respect to an equilibrium. On the contrary, M. Poisson 

 alleges that a necessary consequence of removing the exterior 

 matter would be a change in the figure of the fluid body 

 within the level surface. 



The discrepancy is easily explained. M. Poisson makes 

 the equilibrium depend entirely on the equations {a) and {b) ; 

 that is, he considers only the pressure of the exterior matter 

 caused by the forces which urge its own particles, neglecting 

 the attractive force of the same matter upon the interior fluid. 

 When the effect of this attraction was pointed out, he gave 

 the explanation of it in his work referred to. What he should 

 have done was, to return upon his steps, and to correct his 

 investigation by taking into account all the forces tending to 

 move the particles of the fluid. 



A general demonstration of the theorem will readily sug- 

 gest itself from what has been said. To elucidate the prin- 

 ciple of the equality o/jpressure in all directiotis, and to point 

 out what may safely be inferred from it, would exceed the 

 present limits. 



Sept. 12, 1838. J. IvoRY. 



XXXVIII. Onsome of the PhcBnomena and La'ws of Action of 

 Voltaic Electricity, and on the Constriictio7i of Voltaic Bat- 

 tion,Sfc. By Christopher Binks. A second Cojumunica- 

 teries, addressed to J. F. Daniell, Esq. F.R.S., S^c, Professor 

 of Chemistry in King^s College, London. Part the First. 



[Continued from p. ISO.] 



159. A N examination of these results as they are shown by 

 -^^ these tables, and by the diagram, would seem to 

 warrant the following general inferences. 



160. 1st inference. That considering the zinc in these ar- 

 rangements as the generating point, and the mass of liquid 

 intermediate between it and the copper to be placed in an 

 electrical condition, in whatever such a condition may consist, 

 whether in the actual transmission through the liquid of a ma- 

 terial agent, or the disposing of its particles into a state of po- 

 larization, or of induction, or in what ; considering the elec- 

 tricity developed at the zinc to exercise an influence of this 

 nature over the intermediate mass, we must infer from these 

 experiments, that that influence is diffiised over a greater 

 space as we progressively recede fi'om the point from which 

 it emanates, whilst its quantity, howsoever distributed, re- 

 mains precisely the same. So that at the several distances of 



