92 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



ing for such an accident probably more carefully 

 and perseveringly than any other person in Europe. 

 In 1807, he had published 2 a work, in which he pro- 

 fessed that his purpose was " to ascertain whether 

 electricity, in its most latent state, had any effect 

 on the magnet." And he, as I know from his own 

 declaration, considered his discovery as the natural 

 sequel and confirmation of his early researches ; as, 

 indeed, it fell in readily and immediately with spe- 

 culations on these subjects then very prevalent in 

 Germany. It was an accident like that by which 

 a man guesses a riddle on which his mind has long 

 been employed. 



Besides the confirmation of Oersted's observa- 

 tions by many experimenters, great additions were 

 made to his facts : of these, one of the most im- 

 portant was due to Ampere. Since the earth is in 

 fact magnetic, the voltaic wire ought to be affected 

 by terrestrial magnetism alone, and ought to tend 

 to assume a position depending on the position of 

 the compass-needle. At first, the attempts to pro- 

 duce this effect failed, but soon, with a more delicate 

 apparatus, the result was found to agree with the 

 anticipation. 



It is impossible here to dwell on any of the 

 subsequent researches, except so far as they are 

 essential to our great object, the progress towards 

 a general theory of the subject. I proceed, there- 

 fore, immediately to the attempts made towards 



this object. 



* Ampere, p. 69. 



