576 A DYNAMICAL THEORY OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD. 



(90) Let us next consider the total amount of electricity which would 

 pass from the first surface to the second, if the condenser, after being thoroughly 

 saturated by the current and then discharged, has its extreme surfaces connected 

 by a conductor of resistance R. Let p be the current in this conductor ; then, 

 during the discharge, 



(59). 



Integrating with respect to the time, and calling q lt q n q the quantities of 

 electricity which traverse the different conductors, 



ff,r 1 + 5 t r t + &c.-g ............................... (60). 



The quantities of electricity on the several surfaces will be 



&c. ; 

 and since at last all these quantities vanish, we find 



q 1 = e\ - q, 



\|r / if j> \ -qr r 



whence qR = - ,' H -- r + &c. -- T , 



r\a,&, ajc, ] ok 



or q 



a quantity essentially positive; so that, when the primary electrification is in 

 one direction, the secondary discharge is always in the same direction as the 

 primary discharge *. 



* Since this paper was communicated to the Royal Society, I have seen a paper by M. Gaugain 

 in the Annales de Chimie for 1864, in which he has deduced the phenomena of electric absorption and 

 secondary discharge from the theory of compound condensers. 



