EULOGY ON ARTHUR AUGUSTE DE LA RIVE. 193 



suu, a chemical power superior to that of the volcano, a magnetism 

 equal to that of the earth, and physiological phenomena previduslj' con- 

 sidered as belonging only to manifestations of life. Can it be supposed 

 that all these forces spring from nothing, and that the two metals which 

 produce them remain unchanged in their nature, weight, and other 

 qualities ? 



German science, still involved in the obscurities of the philosophy of 

 nature, was of this opinion, notwithstanding the experiments of M. 

 Becquerel, sr. Auguste De La Eive thought otherwise ; he did not so 

 readily accord to man the faculty of deriving, from nothing, either mat- 

 ter or motion. His mind revolted against such an assumption. He 

 proved, in fact, that no electricity was manifested if one of the two. 

 metals was not oxidized ; that is to say, if it had not undergone chemi- 

 cal change. The electric current is slight when the chemical action is 

 feeble ; intense when it is powerful. The electric circuit starts Irom 

 the metal attacked and passes over to the other. If both metals are 

 affected at once, the electric circuit begins in the one in which the 

 chemical action is strongest. Change the nature of the medium, and 

 you may reverse at will the action and consequently the direction of 

 the current. The latter experiment is decisive. If the contact of two 

 different metals is sufficient to create the electric current, this ought 

 always to proceed in the same direction. If this current is the result of 

 chemical action, it should, on the contrary, move sometimes in one 

 direction, sometimes in the other, starting from the metal attacked and 

 proceeding toward the one not affected, as was proved by Auguste De 

 La Rive. If we measure the electricity obtained, we ought also to note 

 the chemical force expended. We create nothing; we only transform. 

 Such is the theory of the pile. Faraday devoted much time to the con- 

 sideration of these truths, but we can do honor to the Genevese physi- 

 cist while acknowledging our indebtedness to the great English phil- 

 philosopher. 



If the burning of the coal develops the force of the steam-engine, 

 the zinc consumed produces the power of the Voltaic pile. The battery 

 no more creates the electricity that it utilizes than Watt's engine pro- 

 duces the heat that it employs ; that electricity comes entirely from the 

 meral burned by the acids. Pursuing this idea, Auguste De La Kive 

 measured the heat which was manifested in the different elements of a 

 battery, in full activity, and found that it did not exceed that produced 

 by the chemical action exerted upon the metal attacked — a conclusion 

 confirmed by the learned dean of the faculty of Marseilles. It is, then, 

 evident that man creates neither electricity, magnetism, heat, nor light ; 

 he draws these forces from the reservoirs in which they are hidden and 

 in which they were stored without his aid. 



We insist that in nature, as she appears to us, nothing is lost, and 

 nothing is created of that which has weight; we dispose of matter as 

 we choose in order to produce chemical combinations ad infinitum ; 

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