NOMOS. 91 



ductor. Now what must be the consequence of this 

 overflowing ? Have the outward-bound currents the 

 same characters as the main current ? Do they, in 

 like manner, involve the idea of onward transfer of 

 matter? If they do and most certainly the pre- 

 mises allow no other conclusion then it follows that 

 the substance of the conductor must tend to pass in 

 an outward direction during the passage of a current, 

 and that this tendency will be most marked when 

 the conductor is inadequate, as in the experiment 

 with the thin wire, for in this case the outward- 

 bound currents will be more powerful. In other 

 words, the effect of these outward-bound currents 

 will, according to their force, be the same as those 

 which are ascribed to the so-called repulsive power of 

 heat namely, expansion, fluidification, aerification. 

 And thus it is possible to agree with Berzelius in 

 regarding electrical heat and chemical heat as mere 

 modes of the same action, while, at the same time, 

 it is not impossible to dispense with a special re- 

 pellent power in explaining the so-called repulsive 

 effects of heat. 



Nor is there anything contradictory to this view 

 in the history of the heat which is derived from 

 common combustion and other artificial sources, for 

 in every instance the heat is more or less obviously 

 referable to chemical action. 



With reference to artificial heat, also, the same 

 remarks have to be made as those which were pre- 

 viously made with reference to light, and chemical 

 changes, according to the premises, are no less neces- 

 sary for the transmission than for the origination of 



