86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



continue it. I have deposited copper in the magnetic field and out- 

 side the magnetic field, and have endeavored to ascertain the thermo- 

 electric relations of these layers of copper, and have apparently dis- 

 covered — I say apparently, for such experiments require a large num- 

 ber of trials, and I have made thus far only a limited number — that 

 there is a difference of superficial energy between the surface in which 

 the molecules of copper have been subjected to a strong attractive 

 force while they were being deposited, and those molecules which have 

 been only under the influence of ordinary gravitation force. 



The experiments which I have tried have continually deepened in 

 me the belief that any change in the state of aggregation of particles — 

 in other words, any change which results in a modification of attract- 

 ing force — whether gravitative or the commonly called chemical at- 

 tracting forces, results in an electrical potential ; and, conversely, that 

 the passage of electricity through any medium produces a change of 

 aggregation of the molecules and atoms. Professor Schuster, in a late 

 number of "Nature" (July 3, 1884, page 230), gives some of the 

 results of his recent investigation of gases subjected to electrical 

 discharges, and believes himself justified in making the following 

 hypothesis : " In a gas the passage of electricity from one molecule to 

 another is always accompanied by an interchange of the atoms com- 

 posing the molecule ; the molecules are always broken up at the nega- 

 tive pole," and in his comments upon this law he remarks that a mole- 

 cule of mercury consists of a single atom ; but mercury has a very 

 brilliant spectrum : this would seem to militate against the hypothesis. 

 On the other hand, if an essential part of the glow discharge is due to 

 the breaking up of the molecules, we might expect mercury-vapor to 

 present other and much simpler phenomena than other vapors. This 

 is the case, for if mercury-vapor is sufficiently free from air, the elec- 

 trical discharge through it shows no negative glow, no dark spaces, and 

 no stratifications. In reflecting upon experiments of this nature, can not 

 we believe that, if we could systematically break up the arrangement 

 of the atoms in the molecules of any substance, we could produce a 

 difference of electrical potential ? Our instrumental means are proba- 

 bly too coarse to enable us to follow the track of such splitting of the 

 molecules. We are like blind men in a great field of energy striving 

 to ascertain the configuration about us with only three senses — the 

 galvanometer sense, the electrometer sense, and the voltameter sense. 

 Suppose you add to the equipment of such blind men a magnetic sense, 

 or an attractive-force sense. Suppose such a blind man could perceive 

 the equivalence of our thoughts in electrical and magnetic relations, 

 as we now see a manifestation of equivalence of mechanical work when 

 a lighthouse lamp bursts upon our sight. Suppose such a person could 

 become sensible of every change among atoms and molecules. Sup- 

 pose that the quick passing of what we call life from the body into 

 another shape or state of existence should be sensible as a reaction in 



