218 On the Constitution of the Electric Fluid. 



rather stout iron wire, the shocks received by applying the 

 thumb and Uttle finger to the two binding-screws when the 

 shde is on the seventh pin will be trivial ; but change the iron 

 for copper wire of the same thickness, and the shocks will be 

 intolerable. Either of these wires, or of any other metal, would 

 without the least obstruction conduct the lowest intensity of 

 common electricity that can be produced. 



Conclusion. 



Such are a few of the objections which have occurred to me 

 in considering the explanation of voltaic phsenomena. I now 

 conclude this essay, calling to mind an observation of the eminent 

 philosopher whose name I have been compelled to introduce 

 more frequently than I could have wished. He says, " as every 

 man who has the courage, not to say rashness, of forming an 

 opinion of his own, thinks it better than any from which he dif- 

 fers, so it is only deeper investigation, and most generally future 

 investigators who can decide who is in the right*." Should 

 any one hereafter think it worth his while to prove that my 

 opinions are mistaken and my objections groundless, I shall 

 nevertheless reap a valuable reward by having been instrumental 

 in obtaining explanations of what appeared to be incongruities 

 and contradictions, until reconciled and harmonized. My object 

 in questioning doctrines so generally accredited, has been to 

 suggest, that, in the induction of our theory of voltaic electricity, 

 we have been misled by a supposed fundamental principle handed 

 down to us by our original inquirers ; and that, so long as the 

 electric fluid is viewed as an uncompounded agent, there is little 

 probability of arriving at a just comprehension of its phaenomena. 



And now, in conclusion, I have only briefly to recapitulate 

 the objects of the foregoing essay : they are intended to prove 

 that the agent in electric and voltaic phsenomena are altogether 

 different, not in their elementary constituent principles (assuming 

 that they consist of such), but in their ratio and mode of com- 

 bination; so different in these respects as to constitute agents 

 which may be considered sui generis as much as any of the various 

 compounds of elementary matter known to chemists, which, 

 identical in elements, in no other respect resemble each other. 

 If all this be true, voltaic phsenomena are not produced by what 

 is called electricity. 



I have been compelled by the objects of this essay to comment 

 on the opinions of Professor Faraday fully and freely. He him- 

 self has declared, that up to the time when he undertook to 

 examine the question of the identity of the agent in electrical 

 phsenomena, that doctrine had not been fully established. I 

 * Experimental Researches in Electricity, vol, ii. p. 266. 



