THEORY OF GALVANISM. 131 



essential points. It supposes the chemical Decom- 

 position of the interposed fluid to be a necessary, 

 although not the first step in the process. The 

 conducting power of the fluid is, in both cases, 

 taken into account, yet it is regarded in precisely 

 an opposite point of view. According to Volta, 

 the better is the conducting fluid, the more ener- 

 getic is the action of the pile ; while the hypothe- 

 sis of Sir H. Davy seems to require the fluid to 

 possess almost a non-conducting property. 



Some of the late speculations of this illustrious Electric 

 chemist have led him to deviate still farther from el 

 the ordinary hypothesis, not only as it respects gal- 

 vanism, but electricity in general. Those effects 

 which were formerly attributed to a material 

 agent, capable of being added to, or subtracted 

 from a body at pleasure, are now conceived, like 

 gravitation, to be inherent qualities of matter. 

 To these, which are called electric energies, all che- 

 mical decompositions are to be ultimately referred ; 

 for it is supposed, that chemical attraction, in all 

 cases, results from the circumstance of two bodies 

 possessing opposite electric energies, and conse- 

 quently having a strong tendency to unite. By 

 means of the galvanic combinations, we have it in 

 our power to excite the electric state of a body to 

 an indefinite degree, and to induce an electricity 

 contrary to that which is natural to it. 



At the same time, however, that Sir H. Davy 

 conceives this intimate relation to exist between 

 the natural electricity of bodies and their electric 



K 2! 



