384 PELTIER ON THE CAUSES OF THE 
bundle of points, to the phenomenon of induction there is added 
another which has always been the cause of mistaking the first. 
With points or sharp edges, by which the electricity may escape, 
that which is drawn to the extremity of the stem, when it is 
raised or lowered, does not remain there coerced; it flows away 
towards space, and only leaves in the stem the electricity accu- 
mulated at the other extremity. After this loss by the radia- 
tion of the points, if we replace the instrument at the point of 
its equilibration, this preserved electricity remains dominant; — 
the leaves then diverge with a permanent electricity. In this 
case it is no longer the primitive phenomenon, it has ceased to 
be simple; a second phenomenon has taken place which has 
changed its nature by giving free passage to that which is at- 
tracted. If instead of points we place at the end of the rod a 
lighted wick, as Volta did,'the progress of the instrument will — 
be still more rapid; the electricity of induction will radiate 
more easily, and the instrument will directly attain its maximum 
of permanent tension. The more powerful the induction is, the 
greater will be the radiation and the more will the leaves diverge. 
16. These two means have each a double inconvenience: in 
the first place neither of them exhibit the phenomenon in its — 
simplicity, since their indication is similar to that of an electri- 
city received from without, while they have only lost that which 
was repelled by the terrestrial induction to the upper extremity | 
of the stem; secondly, the radiation of the points and of the 
German tinder in combustion depends on the humidity of the 
air, the rain and the force of the wind; they have besides the 
inconvenience of not preserving any electric tension worth no- 
tice during great humidity: the indication of the instrument 
is not the measure of the electric induction, but of that which 
has not been able to pass off by the moist air. These means 
being in entire subordination to the conducting power of the 
atmosphere, they are not adapted to collect and measure the 
variety of the electric tensions occurring every moment. 
17. Besides, in all these experiments the instrument is only 
subjected to electric inductions, and the result is always con- 
formable to the laws of the unequal distributions of the electricity 
of the body, of the radiation of that which is attracted towards 
the points or towards the flame, and of the conductibility of the 
ambient air. To make the conclusion more evident, I have 
produced in a small chamber the same series of experiments ; 
