252 MAGNETIC FLUID. 



As electricity has tlie power of altering the physical 

 conditions of the more adherent states of matter, tlms 

 giving rise to variations of form and modes of combina- 

 tion, so gross matter appears to alter the character of 

 this agency, and thus disposes it to the several modifica- 

 tions under which we have already detected its presence. 

 We have mechanical electricity and chemical electricity, 

 each performing its great work in nature; yet both 

 manifesting conditions so dissimilar, that tedious re- 

 search was necessary before they could be declared 

 identical. Magnetic electricity is a third form ; all its 

 characteristics are unlike the others, and the office it 

 appears to perform in the laboratory of creation is of a 

 different order from that of the other states of electrical 

 force. In the first two we have decomposing and re- 

 combining powers constantly manifested in fact, their 

 influences are always of a chemical character; but in 

 the last it appears we have only a directive power. It 

 was thought that evidence iad been detected of a 

 chemical influence in magnetism ; it did appear that 

 sometimes a retarding force was exerted, aud often an 

 accelerating one. This has been again denied, and we 

 have arrayed in opposition to each other some of the 

 first names among European experimentalists. The 

 question is not yet to be regarded as settled ; but, from 

 long and tedious investigation, during which every old 

 experiment has been repeated, and numerous new ones 

 tried, we incline to the conclusion that chemical action 

 is not directly affected by magnetic power. It is highly 

 probable that magnetism may, by altering the structural 

 arrangement of the surface, vary the rate of chemical 

 action ; but this requires confirmation.* 



There is no substance to be found in nature existing 

 independently of magnetic power. But it influences 



* On the supposed influence of Magnetism and Chemical Action ; 

 by Robert Hunt. Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxxii. No. 215, 

 1819. 



