92 DR. FARADAY'S EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY. (SERIES XII.) 



particle, which is in the same electrical state with that they have left, and by associa- 

 tion of their forces with it, produce what constitutes discharge. This part of the 

 action may be regarded as a carrying one (1319.), performed by the constituent par- 

 ticles of the dielectric. The latter is always a compound body (664. 823.) ; and by 

 those who have considered the subject and are acquainted with the philosophical view 

 of transfer which was first put forth by Grotthuss*, its particles may easily be com- 

 pared to a series of metallic conductors under inductive action, which, whilst in that 

 state, are divisible into these elementary moveable halves. 



1348. Electrolytic discharge depends, of necessity, upon the non-conduction of the 

 dielectric as a whole, and there are two steps or acts in the process : first a polarization 

 of the molecules of the substance, and then a lowering of the forces by the separation, 

 advance in opposite directions, and recombination of the elements of the molecules, 

 they being, as it were, the halves of the originally polarized conductors or particles. 



1349. These views of the decomposition of electrolytes and the consequent effect 

 of discharge, which, as to the particular case, are the same witli those of Grotthuss 

 (481.) and Davy (482.), though they differ from those of Biot (487.), De la Rive 

 (490.), and others, seem to me to be fully in accordance not merely with the theory 

 I have given of induction generally (1 165.), but with all the known/«c^* of common 

 induction, conduction, and electrolytic discharge ; and in that respect help to con- 

 firm, in my mind, the truth of the theory set forth. The new mode of discharge 

 which electrolyzation presents must surely be an evidence of the action of contiguous 

 particles ; and as this appears to depend directly upon a previous inductive state, 

 which is the same with common induction, it greatly strengthens the argument which 

 refers induction in all cases to an action of contiguous particles also (1295, &c.). 



1350. As an illustration of the condition of the polarized particles in a dielectric 

 under induction, I may describe an experiment. Put into a glass vessel some clear 

 rectified oil of turpentine, and introduce two wires passing through glass tubes where 

 they are at the surface of the fluid, and terminating either in balls or points. Cut 

 some very clean dry white silk into small particles, and put these also into the liquid; 

 then electrify one of the wires by an ordinary machine and discharge by the other. The 

 silk will immediately gather from all parts of the liquid, and form a band of particles 

 reaching from wire to wire, and if touched by a glass rod will show considerable tena- 

 city ; yet the moment the supply of electricity ceases, the band will fall away and dis- 

 appear by the dispersion of its parts. The conduction by the silk is in this case very 

 small ; and after the best examination I could give to the effects, the impression on 

 my mind is, that the adhesion of the whole is due to the polarity which each filament 

 acquires, exactly as the particles of iron between the poles of a horse-shoe magnet 

 are held together in one mass by a similar disposition of forces. The particles of 

 silk therefore represent to me the condition of the molecules of the dielectric itself, 

 which I assume to be polar, just as that of the silk is. In all cases of conductive dis- 



* Annales de Chimie, Iviii. 60. and Ixiii. 20. 



