Dr. R. Hare on Electrical Phcenomena. 461 



entirely on potatoes may be said to be on the brink of a pre- 

 cipice without a single inch of ground before him, where the 

 only safety lies in retreat. Its disadvantages may be shown 

 in three different ways: — 1st. It leads to imperfect bodily 

 strength and unsoundness of health. 2nd. To increased 

 mortality and shortness of life. 3rd. To loss of energy and 

 to a kind of stupidity, and want of interest in everything but 

 what concerns the merest animal interests. A country in this 

 state is always ripe for rebellion, and ready to join in every 

 insurrection. 



From the above remarks, it would appear that the manu- 

 facture of brandy from potatoes is a separation of the excess 

 of calorifiant matter, whilst the residue contains all the blood- 

 forming constituents. It is mixed with the gluten of the malt, 

 and thus forms a half-soluble food. In order however that it 

 may suit the nature of ruminating animals, straw or some such 

 food should be added to it. As potatoes contain about one 

 part of albumen lor ten of starch, the half of the starcii may 

 be converted into spirit, while the remainder will consist of a 

 mixture having the nutritive and calorifiant constituents in 

 the same proportion as in grain (1 : 5). 



LXIII. Objections io the Theories severally of YranVWn, Dufay 

 and Ampere, isoith an Attempt to explain Electrical Phceno- 

 mcna by Statical or Undulatorrj Polarization'^ . By Robert 

 Hare, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Pennsylva7iiaf. 



1 . TT appears, from the experiments of Wheatstone, that the 



J- discharge of a Leyden jar, by means of a copper wire, 



takes place within a time so small, that were the transfer of a 



* Agreeably to Faraday's researches and general experience, we have 

 reason to believe that all particles of matter are endowed with one or the 

 other of two species of polarity. Tiiis word polarity conveys the idea that 

 two terminations in each particle are respectively endowed with forces 

 which are analogoi;3, but contrary in their nature; so that of any two 

 homogeneous particles, the similar poles repel each other, while the dis- 

 similar attract ; likewise when freely suspended they take a certain posi- 

 tion relatively to each other, and on due [jroximity, the opposite polar 

 forces, counteracting each other, appear to be extinct. When deranged 

 from this natural state of reciprocal neutralization, their liberateil poles 

 react with the panicles of adjacent boilies, or those in the surrounding 

 medium. Under these circumstances, any body which may be constituted 

 of the particles thus reacting, is said to be polarized, or in a state ot 

 polarization. 



Statical implies stationary j undulatory, wave-like. 



■f- Read before the Academy of Natural Sciences, and conununicated, 

 with corrections and additions, by the Autiior. 



