ORDINARY INDUCTION AN ACTION OF CONTIGUOUS PARTICLES. 3 



a peculiar or polarized state, I was led to suspect that common induction itself was 

 in all cases an action of contiguous particles, and that electrical action at a distance 

 (i. e. ordinary inductive action) never occurred except through the intermediate in- 

 fluence of the intervening matter. 



1165. The respect which I entertain towards the names of Epinus, Cavendish, 

 PoissoN, and other most eminent men, all of whose theories I believe consider induc- 

 tion as an action at a distance and in straight lines, long indisposed me to the view 

 I have just stated ; and though I always watched for opportunities to prove the op- 

 posite opinion, and made such experiments occasionally as seemed to bear directly on 

 the point, as, for instance, the examination of electrolytes, solid and fluid, whilst under 

 induction by polarized light (951. 955.), it is only of late, and by degrees, that the 

 extreme generality of the subject has urged me still further to extend my experi- 

 ments and publish my view. At present I believe ordinary induction in all cases to be 

 an action of contiguous particles, consisting in a species of polarity, instead of being 

 an action of either particles or masses at sensible distances ; and if this be true, the 

 distinction and establishment of such a truth must be of the greatest consequence to 

 our further progress in the investigation of the nature of electric forces. The linked 

 condition of electrical induction with chemical decomposition ; of voltaic excitement 

 with chemical action ; the transfer of elements in an electrolyte ; the original cause 

 of excitement in all cases ; the nature and relation of conduction and insulation ; of 

 the direct and lateral or transverse action constituting electricity and magnetism; with 

 many other things more or less incomprehensible at present, would all be affected by 

 it, and perhaps receive a full explication in their reduction under one general law. 



1166. 1 searched for an unexceptionable test of my view, not merely in the ac- 

 cordance of known facts with it, but in the consequences which would flow from it 

 if true ; especially in those which would not be consistent with the theory of action 

 at a distance. Such a consequence seemed to me to present itself in the direction in 

 which inductive action could be exerted. If in straight lines only, though not perhaps 

 decisive, it would be against my view ; if in curved lines also, that would be a natural 

 result of the action of contiguous particles, but I think utterly incompatible with ac- 

 tion at a distance, as assumed by the received theories, which, according to every fact 

 and analogy we are acquainted with, is always in straight lines. 



1167. Again, if induction be an action of contiguous particles, and also the first 

 step in the process of electrolyzation (1 164. 949.), there seemed reason to expect some 

 particular relation of it to the different kinds of matter through which it would be 

 exerted, or something equivalent to a specific electric induction for diflferent bodies, 

 which, if it existed, would unequivocally prove the dependence of induction on the 

 particles ; and though this, in the theory of Potsson and others, has never been sup- 

 posed to be the case, I was soon led to doubt the received opinion, and have taken 

 great pains in subjecting this matter to close experimental examination. 



1168. Another ever present question on my mind has been, whether electricity has 



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