373 
eS re 
) Considerations were then adduced, with a view of render- 
_ ing it probable that the electric fluid is matter in some extra- 
ordinary state of constitution. Ifit be matter, its constituents 
are probably endowed with chemical attraction, a property of 
which no known kind of matter is destitute : a kind of chemi- 
cal combination of all the constituent elements would be the 
result. The affinity of the elements would keep them toge- 
ther, and this would explain the ready passage of all the con- 
stituents through conductors; one constituent, namely the 
* electricity proper,” conveying the other constituents, some 
of which may not possess the same ready conductibility. 
Thus the electric fluid, either in its state of frictional, voltaic, 
q or any other electricity, ought to pass with its known facility 
through the same bodies, and be intercepted by the same 
bodies, and so we find it. 
In assuming that chemical affinity is thus transported to a 
distance, Mr. Donovan stated, that there is no innovation on 
opinions at present entertained by philosophers; and he re- 
ferred to statements by Sir H. Davy, Faraday, Berzelius, Am- 
pere, Schoénbein, and others, in support of that statement. 
That a distinct constituent element, possessing chemical 
powers, should exist in the compound called the electric 
fluid, associated with heat, prismatic rays, and magnetism, is 
neither less intelligible nor more improbable than that the 
very same elements should be found associated in the sun’s 
rays. With regard to the existence of magnetism in the sun’s 
rays, the author conceived that such a number of witnesses 
as Morichini, Carpi, Rodolfi, Davy, Playfair, Somerville, 
Baumgartner, and the Messrs. Knox, could not all have been 
deceived. 
F. Admitting the agents in common and voltaic electricity to 
be compounds of certain constituent elements, the same in 
number and nature, but very different in proportions, or per- 
haps differently combined, they may be considered as fluids 
perfectly different; in the same way as chemists pronounce 
