TIUC1TY. 87 



that no one has been found capable of separating th< -in. This 

 however we shall now endeavour to do. 



It is admitted that the $imrk at the poles of a magnetic 

 battery is electricity, and we are assured that this spark flows 

 ! i the whole- length of the wire. Thi~ ily be 



proved by finding out what the composition of the spark is. 



There can be no light or fire without a combination of the 

 two classes of matter. As stated in the chapter on Sunlight, 

 the spark from the telegraph wires is composed of the two 

 <>xygen and hydrogen ; being minute atoms thrown 

 off the metallic wires by the force of the magnetic action in 

 them, and reciprocating with the oxygen and hydrogen in the 

 atmosph. 



If then electricity is a combustion of two different materials, 

 how could this combustion flow through a metal wire? Of 

 how is it that the wires do not burn away instantly 1 More- 

 over the spark is only exhibited wh"ii the. wires are in a certain 

 position, and when the force is concentrated. 



It i.s just as incorrect therefore to call the magnetic action in 

 the wires electricity, because under certain conditions there is 

 an exhibition of electricity at their poles, as it would be to call 

 thunder clouds lightning, because under certain conditions they 

 produce and yield lightning ; or to call a tadpole a frog, because 

 it becomes a frog ; or to call an egg a chicken, because it pro- 

 duces a chicken ; or indeed to call anything else by any name 

 whatever, except its own. 



Of course if the scientific world choose to reverse the naines, 

 and call magnetism, electricity, and vice versa, it would be all 

 right, if the same name be applied only, to the same property 

 wherever it is found. But this is not done. A magnet by 



