IN THE ANIMAL ORGANISM. 2Q5 



It is the conductor or propagator of an uninterrupted 

 series of manifestations of activity. 



Such a propagation of motion is inconceivable, if in 

 the wire there were a resistance to be overcome ; for 

 every resistance would convert a part of the moving 

 force into a force at rest. 



When the wire is divided in the middle, and its con- 

 tinuity interrupted, the propagation of force ceases, and 

 we observe, that in this case the action between the 

 zinc and the acid is immediately stopped. 



If the communication be restored, the action which 

 had disappeared, reappears with all its original energy. 



By means of the force present in the wire, we can 

 produce the most varied effects ; we can overcome all 

 kinds of resistance, raise weights, set ships in motion, 

 &c. And, what is still more remarkable, the wire acts 

 as a hollow tube, in which a current of chemical force 

 circulates freely and without hinderance. 



Those properties which, when firmly attached to 

 certain bodies, we call the strongest and most energetic 

 affinities, we find, to all appearance, free and uncombin- 

 ed in the wire. We can transport them from the wire 

 to other bodies, and thereby give to them an affinity 

 (a power of entering into combination) which in them- 

 selves they do not possess. According to the amount 

 of force circulating in the wire, we are able by means 

 of it to decompose compounds, the elements of which 

 have the strongest attraction for each other. Yet the 

 substance of the wire takes not the smallest share in 

 18 



