180 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



that the repellent and attractive energies are com- 

 municated from one particle to another of the same 

 kind, so as to establish a conducting chain in the 

 fluid ; and that the locomotion takes places in con- 

 sequence 7 ;" and yet at other times he speaks of the 

 elements as attracted and repelled by the metallic 

 surfaces which form the poles ; a different, and, 

 as it appeared afterwards, an untenable view. Mr. 

 Faraday, who supplied what was wanting, justly 

 notices this vagueness. He says 8 , that though, in 

 Davy's celebrated Memoir of 1806, the points esta- 

 blished are of the utmost value, "the mode of 

 action by which the effects take place is stated very 

 generally ; so generally, indeed, that probably a 

 dozen precise schemes of electro-chemical action 

 might be drawn up, differing essentially from each 

 other, yet all agreeing with the statement there 

 given." And at a period a little later, being re- 

 proached by Davy's brother with injustice in this 

 expression, he substantiated his assertion by an 

 enumeration of twelve such schemes which had been 

 published. 



But yet we cannot look upon this Memoir of 

 1806, otherwise than as a great event, perhaps the 

 most important event of the epoch now under 

 review. And as such it was recognized at once all 

 over Europe. In particular, it received the distin- 

 guished honour of being crowned by the Institute 

 of France, although that country and England were 



7 Park, p. 154. s Researches, 482. 



