184 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



appear against air 13 , which, according to common 

 language, is not a conductor, nor is decomposed; 

 or against water 14 , which is a conductor, and can 

 be decomposed ; as well as against the metal poles, 

 which are excellent conductors, but undecompos- 

 able; there appears but little reason to consider 

 this phenomenon generally as due to the attraction 

 or attractive powers of the latter, when used in the 

 ordinary way, since similar attractions can hardly 

 be imagined in the former instances." 



Faraday's opinion, and, indeed, the only way of 

 expressing the results of his experiments, was, that 

 the chemical elements, in obedience to the direction 

 of the voltaic currents established in the decom- 

 posing substance, were evolved, or, as he prefers 

 to say, ejected at its extremities 15 . He after- 

 wards states that the influence which is present 

 in the electric current may be described 16 as an 

 .axis of power, having [at each point] contrary 

 forces exactly equal in amount in contrary direc- 

 tions. 



Having arrived at this point, Faraday rightly 

 wished to reject the term poles, and other words 

 which could hardly be used without suggesting doc- 

 trines now proved to be erroneous. He considered, 

 in the case of bodies electrically decomposed, or, 

 as he termed them, electrolytes, the elements as 

 travelling in two opposite directions; which, with 



13 Researches, Arts. 465, 469. u 495. 



493, 10 517. 



