52 ELECTRICITY. 



Electricity of the Atmosphere. 



On this subject the most recent speculation is, that 

 the electricity of the atmosphere is communicated by 

 the action of the solar rays, and it is said that M. 

 Ampere, by a particular position of the connecting 

 wire in the galvanic pile, has succeeded in giving to 

 a needle, by the passing of electric currents, the 

 direction both of dip and variation, which two phe- 

 nomena are capable of being explained by electric 

 currents passing in the atmosphere round the earth 

 from east to west.* 



Metals. 



It seems to be a general law, that regarding metals 

 as intermediate bodies, alkalies receive electricity 

 from them, and consequently become positive ; while 

 acids communicate electricity, and consequently be- 

 come negative. 



M. Ampere's Theory. 



M. Ampere assumes the attractive and repulsive 

 actions of the electric currents themselves, as the 

 primitive and fundamental fact, to which by the help 

 of a particular hypothesis, as to the constitution of 

 magnets, all other facts of the sciences, both of electro- 

 magnetism and of magnetism itself, may be reduced. 

 His supposition "is that all magnetic bodies, and the 

 globe of the earth among the number, derive their 

 magnetic properties from currents of electricity, con- 

 tinually circulating among the parts of which they 

 are composed, and having, with respect to the axes 

 of these bodies,, one uniform direction of revolution. 



* The influence exerted by electricity on muscular action, (the 

 most mysterious of all physiological problems,) is remarkable. 



