OHM OX THE GALVANIC CIRCUIT. 497 



served, but placed entirely beyond doubt by PohVs remark- 

 able experiments on the reaction of metals. Besides, we will 

 direct our attention to a difference which exists between the 

 distributioh of electricity above examined, and the molecular 

 movement now under consideration. If, for instance, the same 

 forces, which previously effected the conduction of the electri- 

 city, and there, as it were, incorporeally without impediment 

 strove against each other, here enter into conflict with masses, 

 by which their free activity is restricted, a restriction which, 

 whether we regard the electricity de se ipso as something mate- 

 rial or not, must render their present velocities, beyond com- 

 parison, smaller than the former ones ; therefore we cannot in 

 the least expect that the permanent state, which we at present 

 examine, will instantaneously occur like that above noticed, 

 arising from the electric distribution ; we have rather to expect 

 that the permanent state resulting from the chemical equiva- 

 lent of both constituents, will make its appearance only after a 

 perceptible, although longer or shorter time. 



After these remarks, we will now proceed to the determina- 

 tion of the separate values X and Y. 



34. To obtain the value X, we have merely to bear in mind 

 that the intensity of coherence is determined by the force with 

 which the two adjacent constituents attract or repel each other 

 by virtue of their electric antagonism, and consequently, as was 

 shown in § 30, proportional to the product of the latent electro- 

 scopic forces m z and n (1 — z) possessed by the constituents of 

 the disc M, and is, moreover, dependent on a function to be 

 deduced from the size, form, and distance, which we will desig- 

 nate by 4 <f . Accordingly, when we restrict the coherence to 

 the magnitude of the section co, 



X = — 4 ^ m » 2" (1 — 2r) o). 



We have placed the sign — before the expression ascertained 

 for the strength of the coherence, since a reciprocal attraction 

 of the constituents only occurs when m and n have opposite 

 signs ; when m and n have the same signs, the constituents 

 exert a repulsive action on each other, which no longer pre- 

 vents, but promotes the decomposing force. After this re- 

 mark it will at first sight be evident that a positive or negative 

 value must be ascribed to the function <f), according as the ex- 

 pression taken for the decomposing force z is positive or nega- 



