446 EXPERIMENTS OF 



and many other modern experimenters, that 

 both the heating and chemical powers of voltaic 

 electricity are in direct proportion to its quan- 

 tity ; and that the quantity evolved is in propor- 

 tion to the amount of chemical action which cor- 

 responds with the universally acknowledged fact, 

 that the heat of combustion is in the same ratio. 



Without deciding whether electricity be a ma- 

 terial agent, sui generis, or mere motion of ordi- 

 nary matter, Dr. Faraday maintains, that " the 

 atoms of matter are in some way endowed or 

 associated with electrical powers, to which they 

 owe their most striking qualities, and amongst 

 others, their mutual chemical affinity," and he 

 has endeavoured to ascertain experimentally, the 

 absolute amount of this agent, motion, or power, 

 which is associated with the particles or atoms 

 of matter. He found that " one grain of water 

 required an electric current to be continued for 

 three minutes and forty- five seconds to effect its 

 decomposition ; which current must be powerful 

 enough to retain a platina wire y^ of an inch in 

 thickness, red hot in the air, during the whole 

 time." From which he concluded, that an equal 

 quantity of electricity is employed in holding 

 the particles of one grain of water together ; and 

 that it is probably equal to a very powerful flash 

 of lightning. (Experimental Researches in Elec- 

 tricity, Sixth Series, Phil. Transactions, 1834.) 



He adds, in another section, (873), that " the 



