176 Miscellanies. 



3d. All the sources of electricity are probably at present known ; 

 but with respect to the laws which, in each case govern its develop- 

 ment, we are still very far from having discovered them. 



4th. The influence which bodies may exert over electricity, either 

 when placed in its track, or interposed between it and the points to- 

 wards which its exterior action is directed, has been within a short 



I 



time past, studied with great care. Many curious phenomena, in re- 

 lation to this influence have been discovered ; some laws even have 

 been settled ; but the number of anomalies and unexplained effects 

 is still very considerable. It is probable that in the investigation of 

 this class of facts, means may be found of arriving at some notions 

 with respect to the nature of electricity, and the relations which con- 

 nect this agent w T ith ponderable matter. 



5th. The effects which electricity produces on bodies are now well 

 known ; the laws to which they are subjected, are in general well 

 determined ; but their connection with the cause which produces 

 them rests only on hypotheses, which can boast but very little solidi- 

 ty, and which have lately been very much shaken. It is by an en- 

 quiry into this connexion by a study in detail of those effects, that 

 we are to find the means of arriving at a more just idea of the nature 

 of electricity, and of the cause of the effects to which it evidently 

 gives rise, as well as which are perhaps erroneously ascribed to it, 

 and which, such as chemical phenomena, have probably no other re- 

 lation to it but that of being occasioned by the operation of the same 

 agent. 



6th. Finally, after having, from its very origin, framed and de- 

 molished theories to account for the action of the Voltaic pile, phi- 

 losophers are not yet united on that subject, and although at the pre- 

 sent time, the chemical theory of this admirable apparatus may per- 

 haps be most in vogue, it still requires the support of further obser- 

 vation to be generally adopted, and definitively substituted (or the 

 electromotive theory of Volta, the unsatisfactory nature of which is 

 now fairly demonstrated. 



This brief recapitulation is sufficient to show that notwithstanding 

 the importance of the discoveries with which electricity has been en- 

 riched, that which remains to be done in this part of physical science 

 is perhaps more considerable than all that has hitherto been done 

 since almost all its laws and all its principles are still to be discov 

 ered. 



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