ABSOLUTE QUANTITY OF ELECTRICITY IN MATTER. 117 



brilliant and constant star of light. If attention be paid to the instantaneous 

 discharge of electricity of tension, as illustrated in the beautiful experiments of 

 Mr. Wheatstone ^, and to what I have said elsewhere on the relation of common 

 and voltaic electricity (371. 375.), it will not be too much to say, that this necessary 

 quantity of electricity is equal to a very powerful flash of lightning. Yet we have it 

 under perfect command ; can evolve, direct, and employ it at pleasure ; and when it 

 has performed its full work of electrolyzation, it has only separated the elements of a 

 single grain of water. 



854. On the other hand, the relation between the conduction of the electricity and 

 the decomposition of the water is so close, that one cannot take place without the 

 other. If the water is altered only in that small degree which consists in its having 

 the solid instead of the fluid state, the conduction is stopped, and the decomposition 

 is stopped with it. Whether the conduction be considered as depending upon the de- 

 composition, or not (413. 703.), still the relation of the two functions is equally inti- 

 mate and inseparable. 



855. Considering this close and twofold relation, namely, that without decompo- 

 sition transmission of electricity does not occur ; and, that for a given definite quantity 

 of electricity passed, an equally definite and constant quantity of water or other matter 

 is decomposed ; considering also that the agent, which is electricity, is simply employed 

 in overcoming electrical powers in the body subjected to its action; it seems a pro- 

 bable, and almost a natural consequence, that the quantity which passes is the equiva- 

 lent of, and therefore equal to, that of the particles separated ; i. e. that if the electrical 

 power which holds the elements of a grain of water in combination, or which makes a 

 grain of oxygen and hydrogen in the right proportions unite into water when they are 

 made to combine, could be thrown into the condition of a current, it would exactly 

 equal the current required for the separation of that grain of water into its elements 

 again. 



856. This view of the subject gives an almost overwhelming idea of the extraor- 

 dinary quantity or degree of electric power which naturally belongs to the particles 

 of matter ; but it is not inconsistent in the slightest degree with the facts which can 

 be brought to bear on this point. To illustrate this I must say a few words on the 

 voltaic pile-f". 



temperature of dull redness, equal quantities of water were decomposed in equal times in both cases. When 

 the half- inch was used, only the centre portion of wire was ignited. A fme wire may even be used as a rough 

 but ready regulator of a voltaic current ; for if it be made part of the circuit, and the larger wires communi- 

 cating with it be shifted nearer to or further apart, so as to keej) the portion of wire in the circuit sensibly at 

 the same temperature, the current passing through it will be nearly uniform. 



* Literary Gazette, 1833, March 1 and 8. Philosophical Magazine, 1833, p. 204. L'Institute, 1833, p. 261. 



t By the term voltaic pile, I mean such apparatus or arrangement of metals as up to this time have been 

 called so, and which contain water, brine, acids, or other aqueous solutions or decomposable substances (476.), 

 between their plates. Other kinds of electric apparatus may be hereafter invented, and I hope to construct 

 some rot belonging to the class of instruments discovered by VoLTA. 



