432 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



itself as a challenge to the best scientific intellects of 

 Europe, now fell into his hands. It proved to be a beau- 

 tiful, but still special, illustration of the great principle 

 of Magneto- electric Induction. Nothing equal to this 

 latter, in the way of pure experimental inquiry, had pre- 

 viously been achieved. 



Electricities from various sources were next examined, 

 and their differences and resemblances revealed. He thus 

 assured himself of their substantial identity. He then took 

 up Conduction, and gave many striking illustrations of 

 the influence of Fusion on Conducting Power. Eenounc- 

 ing professional work, from which at this time he might 

 have derived an income of many thousands a year, he 

 poured his whole momentum into his researches. He was 

 long entangled in Electro-chemistry. The light of law 

 was for a time obscured by the thick umbrage of novel 

 facts; but he finally emerged from his researches with the 

 great principle of Definite Electro-chemical Decomposition 

 in his hands. If his discovery of Magneto- electricity may 

 be ranked with that of the pile by Volta, this new discov- 

 ery may almost stand beside that of Definite Combining 

 Proportions in Chemistry. He passed on to Static Elec- 

 tricity — its Conduction, Induction, and Mode of Propaga- 

 tion. He discovered and illustrated the principle of In- 

 ductive Capacity; and, turning to theory, he asked himself 

 how electrical attractions and repulsions are transmitted. 

 Are they, like gravity, actions at a distance, or do they 

 require a medium ? If the former, then, like gravity, they 

 will act in straight lines; if the latter, then, like sound 

 or light, they may turn a comer. Faraday held — and his 

 views are gaining ground — that his experiments proved 

 the fact of curvilinear propagation, and hence the opera- 



