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469 
going cases are applicable to the doctrine, and that no sup- 
port can be derived from them. A series of arguments was 
then made use of, which cannot be abridged, to prove that a 
Leyden battery has never yet been really charged by the vol- 
taic current; that the circumstances under which the charge 
has been supposed to have been communicated are such as 
to render the thing impossible ; and that hence the so-called 
charge of a Leyden battery by a voltaic current does not prove 
the circulation of an enormous quantity of electricity in a vol- 
taic series, but: rather shows that the agent which gives the 
voltaic shock is not the same as that which acts in the pheno- 
mena of ordinary electricity. The shock of the coil apparatus 
was adduced as an evidence to the same effect; and, finally, 
it was observed that the sensation which constitutes the shock 
ought not to be received as evidence on either side of the ques- 
tion, since sensations depend more on the organ acted on than 
on the agent; and in support of this opinion a number of in- 
stances were adduced. 
_ Whatever difference of opinion may exist relative to the 
nature of positive and negative electricity, it appears to be a 
position universally agreed to, that, when equal to each other, 
and at liberty to act, they mutually neutralize and destroy 
each other's properties ; all symptoms of both disappear; a 
_ condition of absolute quiescence results ; that of equilibrium 
is induced ; and this state manifests no electrical properties. 
_ The poles ofa voltaic battery, being in the positive and negative 
_ states, conform to the general law: when unconnected, they 
manifest their electrical condition ; but as soon as they are con- 
nected by a good conductor, all symptoms of electricity vanish. 
This has been proved in a remarkable manner by Mr. Gas- 
siott with a water battery consisting of 3520 pairs, exhibiting 
great power over even a distant gold-leaf electrometer while 
_ the poles were unconnected, but losing all energy when they 
were united. 
_ Yet it is at the moment when the poles are united, and 
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