Mechanical and Galvanic Electricity. 217 



trical current already produced ? The same propulsion must 

 be given to the electricity liberated between the plates of the 

 second pair as between those of the first ; and it is inconceivable 

 to me, that the accession of that derived from the first pair 

 should add to the velocity of the portion evolved by the second. 

 The current of the former cannot be supposed to move with 

 greater velocity on account of its meeting with another, which 

 moves at its own rate. Currents are not accelerated by their 

 confluence, unless the head or pressure be increased, and the 

 channel restricted. But in the case in point it has been shown, 

 that by the reaction of the solvent with the first pair in the se- 

 ries, the tension must attain the highest degree consistent with 

 the imperfect insulation ; and no cause has been assigned for 

 the restriction of the channel. It may be said that the current 

 from the first pair cannot pass through the li(}uid in the second 

 cell without causing the decomposition of that liquid ; and that 

 as its power is inadequate to effect this change, it has to pur- 

 sue the same route as the electricity which is generated by the 

 oxidizement of the second plate of zinc. It is still difficult to 

 me to imagine that it can transfer its momentum to the cur- 

 rent which thus precedes it; or that the chemical reaction by 

 which the latter is evolved, should act only in accelerating the 

 stream which it receives from the preceding pair. Granting 

 that imponderable matter, at the moment of its extrication 

 from confinement among ponderable atoms, were to receive an 

 impulse which, by extraneous cooperating causes, should force 

 it to move in a current, yet I cannot imagine that such atoms 

 can, by any reaction originating between themselves, give an 

 impulse to imponderable matter extricated from other atoms. 

 Whether or not the electricity be derived from chemical reac- 

 tion, it seems to me that the power which puts it in motion, 

 and accelerates and condenses it into a channel, still smaller 

 and smaller as its intensity increases, must be ascribed to some 

 mysterious property arising from the arrangement of the ele- 

 ments of the series, which is, in the present state of our know- 

 ledge, inexplicable. 



This electromotive power, if not antecedent, does not ap- 

 pear to me to be consequent to chemical reaction. I conceive 

 that it operates upon all the imponderable elements within its 

 scope, tending to accumulate them at the "electrodes" under 

 a greater or less degree of tension. The potency of the re- 

 suiting discharge, when the circuit is completed, is regulated 

 both by the tension and the quantity of the imponderable mat- 

 ter accumulated. But the presence of reagents, which favour 

 the extrication of imponderable materials, as in the more effi- 

 cient voltaic apparatus, is compatible only with a leeble insu- 



Third Series. Vol.9. No. 53. Sept.mG. '2 B 



