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XIV. On the Conduction of Electricity in Electrolytes. 

 By R. Clausius*. 



1 . TN a former memoir f I considered tlie effects of a galvanic 



A current within a conductor of the first class {i. e. one which 

 conducts without electrolysis), without taking into account the 

 manner in which the currenfwas produced. It was there found 

 that the laws regulating the pi'oduction of heat in such conduc- 

 tors follow immediately from Ohm's law, and from the principle 

 of the equivalence of heat and work. In a similar manner, if we 

 consider a conductor of the second class, that is to say, one which 

 conducts by electrolysis, without any reference to the other parts 

 of the circuit, we may deduce conclusions, some strictly accurate, 

 and others at least probable, which appear to possess some in- 

 terest. In the following pages I will endeavour to develope some 

 of these deductions. 



2. With respect to the laws of the production of heat, if we 

 admit the applicability of Ohm's law to conductors of the second 

 class, the conclusions of my former memoir may also be extended, 

 without any modification, to the case under consideration ; as 

 before, however, we shall assume that the current is stationary, 

 and that it neither exerts nor suffers any inducing actions of an 

 electro-magnetic or electro-dynamic kind. 



In order to maintain the electricity in motion, notwithstanding 

 the resistance offered by the conductor, a force must be present 

 in every point of the latter, tending to move the electricity con- 

 centrated in the same in a definite direction ; or, assuming two 

 electricities, to drive the positive electricity in one direction, and 

 the negative with equal energy in the opposite direction. This 

 force proceeds from free electricity, which, as Kirchhoff has 

 proved, may exist on the surface of the conductor or on the sur- 

 face separating two different conductors^ but not in the interior 

 of the same. With respect to the interior of a homogeneous con- 

 ductor, no matter whether the same belong to the first or to the 

 second class, if we admit the hypothesis of two electricities moving 

 in opposite directions, we must assume that equal quantities of 

 both kinds of electricity are always present in every measurable 

 space within the conductor ; and if we admit only one kind of 

 electricity, we must suppose the normal quantity of electricity 

 to be always present within a given space, in consequence of 

 which that space appears unelectric. 



In our present case the ivork done by the moving force can be 



* From PoggentlorfF's Annalen, vol. ci. p. 338. 



t " On tlie Work performed and Heat generated in the Conductor of a 

 Stationary CuiTent," PoggendorfF's Annalen, vol. Ixxxvii. p. 416 ; and 

 Scientific Memoirs, New iSeries, p. 200, 



