28 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



My first idea, when I had thoroughly convinced myself of the 

 difference in the effect of the two currents upon the sensibility of 

 the skin, the idea that would naturally have presented itself to any 

 physicist, was that this difference might perhaps be explained by 

 the difference of tension. I was induced by this belief to make 

 certain experiments, the results of which were entirely negative. 

 Being unable to solve my problem, or, in other words, being unable 

 to find the explanation that I sought, I thought it best to abstain 

 from publishing my experiments. In this decision I now think I 

 was mistaken ; since many physicists of the first reputation and 

 of the highest talent have attributed the different properties of the 

 currents solely to the difference in their tension. 



" The extra current," they say, " and the current of the first 

 order, do not enjoy elective properties over this or that function ; 

 but they have an action more or less energetic by reason of their 

 tension, — tension which they owe to the size, the inductive power, 

 and the insulation of the wire that they traverse. Thus an induced 

 current, produced in a wire much longer, and of much less dia- 

 meter than the first, has a much greater tension than the extra 

 current produced in a thicker and sliorter wire. Thus powers and 

 properties, apparently different, result from the greater tension of 

 the current that produces them.'"' 



From the foregoing theory critical deductions have been framed 

 with regard to the arrangement and properties of my electro- 

 dynamic and electro-magnetic instruments, made, as is well-known, 

 with reference to their application in medicine. Since these deduc- 

 tions diminish the value of my physiological researches, and of the 

 practical considerations that flow from them, I think it my duty to 

 make known my own experiments with regard to this important 

 question, experiments which seemed to me to prove that the 

 physiological differences between the induced currents of the first 

 and second helices were not solely due to differences in their ten- 

 sion ; that their properties are really special to each, and, at present, 

 are not capable of explanation. 



In order that my experiments should be simpler, and more 

 decisive, I studied the phenomena of induction without the inter- 



water for a distance of eight centimetres ; | second ; or, in other words, that the 



while that of the second helix is still 

 very ai^preciable after passing through 

 thirty centimetres. These phenomena 

 are the same, whether the ciirreuts be 



former has a much less degree of tension 

 than the latter. 



^ Traite cles applications de I'^ledricife 

 la therapeutique^ jmr A. Becquerel, 



furnished by an electro-dynamic or an 1857, p. 58. I may mention that the 

 electro-magnetic apparatus. They show | physical part of this book is due to the 

 that the cm-rent of the first helix over- '. assistance of M. E. Becquerel, whose 

 comes the resistance of the water with j learning and abilities arc world re- 

 much more difiiculty than that of the i nowned. 



