3 Mr. Faraday and Dr. P. Riess on the Action of 



and by it I find that I have failed to convey to your mind (and 

 therefore, perhaps, to the minds of others) my true meaning ; 

 so that what you think to be my view, is in some very important 

 points absolutely the reverse. You will not wonder that I am 

 anxious to set myself right in such a matter with one who holds 

 your high position in science. For that purpose I must refer 

 to the pages of the Philosophical Magazine ; for though I am 

 not a judge of the strictness of the translation, I have no other 

 means of access and reference to your paper. 



At the bottom of page 402, the paper says that Faraday has 

 endeavoured to establish the notion that "induction is not pro- 

 duced by the action of electricity across space, but that an electric 

 body acts only on the contiguous particles of an insulating me- 

 dium," &c. If you refer again to my papers, you will find that in 

 the very beginning of that on induction (1165.) I have especially 

 limited the cases to those of ordinary induction, i. e. cases where 

 matter is present J at (1215.) this expression is repeated; and 

 again in vol. ii. Exp. Res. p. 267. Instead of saying that in- 

 duction cannot occur across space, I have especially spoken of the 

 case of a vacuum (1613-1616.), which case is enlarged upon 

 in a letter to Dr. Hare, vol. ii. Exp. Res. p. 262. 266. 



At p. 403, Phil. Mag., your paper says, "It follows from other 

 experiments made by Faraday (1218.), that the induction would 

 have been diminished had a conducting plate been introduced 

 between the two ; for, according to Faraday's opinion, the intro- 

 duction of the conducting plate would have caused the induction 

 to take place in curved lines around the edges of the plate, instead 

 of in right lines through the intervening stratum of air." If 

 this translation conveys your meaning, then I cannot find out 

 what expression of mine has led you to suppose the above is my 

 opinion. I have nowhere said or implied that the interposition 

 of such a plate would have diminished the induction, or made it 

 take place in lines only round its edges, or more cun'ed than 

 before. On the contrary, I know that because of such a plate 

 more lines of force would have passed to the space occupied by 

 it than befoi'e ; that as far as regarded that portion of space, 

 induction would be replaced by the better function of conduc- 

 tion ; that instead of interfering with induction, it would have 

 favoured the final result, although that result would be compli- 

 cated by the form and size of the plate, the distances of it and 

 the acting bodies, and by other circumstances, as your paper 

 well shows. 



The case of mine to which your paper refers as above (1218.), 

 is one of those which I sought for as establishing the possibility 

 of induction in curved lines, and is not given as a proof that it 

 must always be in curved lines, which is very far from my 



