concerned in the Phenomena of ordinary Electricity f 6fc. 3& 



of electricity which passes in sparks from either conductor of an 

 electric machine, when any conducting substance is approached ; 

 are both streams mixtures of positive and negative electricity in 

 equal ratio ? if so, why do these torrents of fire appear ? why do 

 they not neutralize each other while on the conductor, and fall 

 into inert equilibrium, instead of flashing through the air ? why 

 does a body charged with one kind of electricity attract a body 

 charged with the other, and repel a body charged with the same ? 

 and lastly, if the composition of the positive and negative currents 

 be the same, what is the difference between positive and negative 

 electricity, and why have they different properties ? That they 

 have different properties, in respect of the class of phsenomena 

 under consideration, appears from the researches of Faraday 

 himself; for in his decompositions of salts by frictional electri- 

 city, the results are described to be the same with regard to the 

 distribution of the separated elements as would have been pro- 

 duced by the voltaic apparatus ; and he concludes his observa- 

 tions on this subject by declaring that there cannot be a doubt 

 " that voltaic and common electricity have powers of chemical 

 decomposition alike in their nature, and governed by the same 

 law of arrangement*." 



The difference between the positive and negative conditions of 

 the current is thus represented by Professor Faraday : he says 

 the cun-ent is neither a compounded nor complicated influence, 

 but "an axis of power having contrary forces exactly equal in 

 amount, in contrary directionsf." But here no real distinction 

 appears to be estabhshed between positive and negative electrical 

 currents ; for in eveiy part J of both the two electrical forces are 

 present "in equal amount," " travelling §" in opposite direc- 

 tions ; there is therefore no difference. As to the affirmed dif- 

 ference of direction in which the currents are said to travel, it is 

 not easy to understand how that can give origin to the great 

 difference of properties manifested by the positive and negative 

 poles of a voltaic series. An absolute direction of the currents, 

 in contradistinction to a relative one, can have no effect ; for if 

 it had, reversing the position of a voltaic trough ought to reverse 

 its poles. It must then be the relative direction of the currents 

 with regard to each other that is meant. What the influence 

 of even relative direction may be is not very intel ligible ; for 



current ~Z*^. seems not to differ from current ^ when both 



constituent forces arc exactly of the same constitution, as is 

 affirmed. 



* Researches, par. 331 . t Ibid. par. 517- 



X Ibid. par. 1612. § Ibid. par. 1(J35. 



