216 THE PHENOMENA OF MOTION 



When the wire is divided in the middle, and 

 its continuity interrupted, the propagation of force 

 ceases, and we observe, that in this case the action 

 between the zinc and the acid is immediately 

 stopped. 



If the communication be restored, the action 

 w^hich had disappeared reappears with all its origi- 

 nal energy. 



By means of the force present in the wire, w^e 

 can produce the most varied eifects ; w^e can over- 

 come all kinds of resistance, raise weights, set ships 

 in motion, &c. And, what is still more remarkable, 

 the wire acts as a hollow tube, in which a current 

 of chemical force circulates freely and without hin- 

 drance. 



Those properties which, when firmly attached to 

 certain bodies, we call the strongest and most ener- 

 getic affinities, we find, to all appearance, free and 

 uncombined in the wire. We can transport them 

 from the wire to other bodies, and thereby give to 

 them an affinity (a power of entering into combina- 

 tion) wdiicli in themselves they do not possess. Ac- 

 cording to the amount of force circulating in the 

 wire, we are able by means of it to decompose com- 

 pounds, the elements of which have the strongest 

 attraction for each other. Yet the substance of the 

 wire takes not the smallest share in all these mani- 

 festations of force : it is merelv the conductor of 

 force. 



We observe, further, in this wire, phenomena of 



