338 On the primary Forces of Electricity : Part II. 



spheres *; consequently the natural position of a line of such 



electrospheres will be as shown in the annexed figure, in which 



the points repi'esent the nuclei of 



common matter; the larger circles Fig. 3. 



the boundaries of the perfect strata of ,.„,„, ..u ,.u 



, , , ^ , , ,, 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 4th. 5th. 



the electrospheres ; and the smaller r^-'^~\r^/^.\'^'\ 

 circles the exterior atoms of electri- ^^■••Z.^\iJ\iJ\l.)\ ' j 

 city by which the equivalents of the 

 common nuclei are completed. 



81. Now, on presenting to the first of such a line of electro- 

 spheres any body in a plus electrical condition, it is quite ma- 

 nifest by the principles we are examining, that the major force 

 will induce the exterior atom of the first electrical equivalent to 

 take the place of the second, this of a third, and so on, to 

 the end of the line where the exterior atom will appear free ; 

 or otherwise it will be found at that place in the series where 

 it can obtain the most perfect compensation, and beyond 

 which of course the inductive process would not be con- 

 tinued. 



82. If we conceive the last electrosphere in the line to be 

 so circumstanced, with regard to contiguous bodies that it can 

 give off its exterior and free atom as rapidly as it becomes 

 replaced, the inductive action just described may be repeated 

 an indefinite number of times, or so long as the plus electrical 

 body at the other extremity retains a single free atom to com- 

 plete the equivalent of the proximate electrosphere. In this 

 case the whole line performs the function of a conductor of 

 electricity. 



8r5. Inasmuch as induction and compensation are always 

 simultaneous they may in a certain sense be regarded as syn- 

 onymous terms ; but for sake of theoretical precision it will 

 be useful not only to regard the latter as the effect of the 

 former, but also to subdivide compensation into virtual and 

 actual. By virtual compensation we should understand that 

 state of a given body, in which, though exactly retaining its 

 natural electrical equivalent, it exhibits under the influence 

 of induction the characteristics of a charged body ; and by 

 actual compensation we might describe that other condition 

 in which a body is placed by induction when it really pos- 

 sesses a quantity of electricity different to its natural equiva- 

 lent. 



84. If our explanation of the origin of the inductive pro- 



• The agency by which electricity is made elastic is here assumed to be 

 in operation ; its nature will be the subject of a future communication. 



