CHEMICAL ATTRACTION. 201 



tricity as the proximate cause of molecular at- 

 traction, it may be somewhat surprising that I 

 have proceeded so far without an examination of 

 the facts on which the electro-chemical theory 

 was founded. 



To this I answer, that no general law of elec- 

 tric action has ever yet been pointed out capable 

 of explaining all the phenomena of molecular 

 forces in short, that nearly all the leading facts, 

 connected with the theory of electricity, are 

 involved in the utmost obscurity and uncer- 

 tainty. 



I have shown that caloric is a universal and 

 independent agent, which may be everywhere 

 recognized as a source of power and motion 

 of contraction and expansion of solution and 

 recombination that it is an essential principle 

 of action in all the proceedings of nature. 



But, in regard to electricity, we are not in- 

 formed by those who assign it as the cause of 

 chemical action, whether it be a material agent 

 which may be added to, and subtracted from 

 ponderable matter, or a mere effect resulting 

 from the inherent properties of common matter. 

 The electro-chemical theory of Sir Humphrey 

 Davy was founded on the well known fact, that 

 when bodies are in different states of electricity, 

 they attract each other. Starting from this 

 point, he assumed, first, the existence of two 

 electric fluids, each of which has an attraction 



