132! THEORY OF GALVANISM. 



attractions, he decidedly states his opinion that 

 they are not absolutely identical. He regards 

 them, on the contrary, as distinct phenomena, pro- 

 duced indeed by the same power, but acting in 

 one case on masses, and in the other on particles. 

 He illustrates his opinion by observing, " that the 

 primary cause of both may be the same, and that 

 the same arrangements of matter, or the same at- 

 tractive powers, which place bodies in the relation 

 of positive and negative, i. e. which render them 

 attractive or each other electrically, and capable of 

 communicating attractive powers to other matter, 

 may likewise render their particles attractive, and 

 enable them to combine, when they have full free- 

 dom of motion." * 



But the farther consideration of the merits of 

 this theory belong rather to electricity than to 

 galvanism strictly so called. To whatever cause 

 we ascribe the electric state of bodies, whether to 

 a material agent distributed through them in dif- 

 ferent quantities, or to some affection of their pri- 

 mary qualities, the states of positive and negative 

 electricity actually exist, and our present business 

 is merely to inquire what relation they bear to 

 the phenomena of the galvanic pile. 



De LUC'S De Luc advances an argument, which he con- 

 objections, ^veg to k e q u i te decisive, against the hypothesis 

 of the natural electric energies of bodies produc- 

 ing the phenomena of the pile, that the whole in- 



* Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy,. p. 164- 



