52 Mechanical Philosophij 



and various experiments evince that the agent in 

 question produces, most powerfully, some effects^ 

 particularly decompositions, w^hich have been hi- 

 therto considered as belonging to the province of 

 chemistry alone; but the main point in dispute is 

 yet far from being satisfactorily solved. Indeed, 



/ the vt^onderful apparent combination of electrical 

 and chemical agency,^ in the more remarkable Gal- 

 vanic experiments, seems to forbid the expectation 

 of finding an adequate solution of the phenomena 

 in any principles yet known. — But as this sub- 



■ ject has excited so much attention among philoso- 

 phers, in every part of Europe, and as new facts 

 will probably be brought to light every day, we 

 may hope that the time is not very distant, when 

 a sufficient number of facts will be arranged to form 

 a consistent and satisfactory theory, and when this 

 branch of knowledge will take its place among the 

 most dignified and useful of the sciences.'^ 



MAGNETISM, 



This branch of philosophy, during the same pe- 

 riod, has been an object of less attention than elec- 

 tricity, and of fewer speculations; probably on 

 account of the smaller range of its phenomena, and 

 its being less capable of popular exhibition. Still, 

 however, it has been considerably cultivated, and 

 has received some important improvements, since 

 the time of Dr. Gilber r, the great father of mag- 

 netical philosophy. The number of facts con- 



p The above distinction between electrical and chemical phenomena is 

 used in accommodation to the customary division of the sciences; for it may 

 reasonably be doubted whether electricity y and even magnetism, ought not to 

 be considered as sul)jects of chemistry. 



, q For further information on this subject, see the Supplement to the En^ 

 cyclopadia^ art. GALVANISM. See also Gar.NETT'3 Annals of Philosophy^ 

 for 1800. 



