156 DR. FARADAY'S EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY. (SERIES XIII.) 



the central particle or source of action, i. e. they will be polarized in the same way, 

 and with the same amount of force. 



§ 19. Nature of the electric current. 



161 7. Tiie word current is so expressive in common language, that when applied 

 in the consideration of electrical phenomena we can hardly divest it sufficiently of its 

 meaning, or prevent our minds from being prejudiced by it (283. 511.). I shall use 

 it in its common electrical sense, namely, to express generally a certain condition and 

 relation of electrical forces supposed to be in progression. 



1618. A current is produced both by excitement and discharge; and whatsoever 

 the variation of the two general causes may be, the effi^ct remains the same. Thus 

 excitement may occur in many ways, as by friction, chemical action, influence of 

 heat, change of condition, induction, &c. ; and discharge has the forms of conduc- 

 tion, electrolyzation, disruptive discharge, and convection ; yet the current connected 

 with these actions, when it occurs, appears in all cases to be the same. This con- 

 stancy in the character of the current, notwithstanding the particular and great 

 variations which may be made in the mode of its occurrence, is exceedingly striking 

 and important ; and its investigation and development promise to supply the most 

 open and advantageous road to a true and intimate understanding of the nature of 

 electrical forces. 



1619. As yet the phenomena of the current have presented nothing in opposition 

 to the view I have taken of the nature of induction as an action of contiguous particles. 

 I have endeavoured to divest myself of prejudices and to look for contradictions, 

 but I have not perceived any in conductive, electrolytic, convective, or disruptive 

 discharge. 



1620. Looking at the current as a cause, it exerts very extraordinary and diverse 

 powers, not only in its course and on the bodies in which it exists, but collaterally, as 

 in inductive or magnetic phenomena. 



1621. Electrolytic action. — One of its direct actions is the exertion of pure che- 

 mical force, this being a result which has now been examined to a considerable ex- 

 tent. The effect is found to be constatit and definite for the quantity of electric force 

 discharged (783, &c.) ; and beyond that, the intensity required is in relation to the 

 intensity of the affinity or forces to be overcome (904. 906. 911.). The current and 

 its consequences are here proportionate ; the one may be employed to represent the 

 other ; no part of the effect of either is lost or gained ; so that the case is a strict one, 

 and yet it is the very case which most strikingly illustrates the doctrine that induc- 

 tion is an action of contiguous particles (1 164. 1343.). 



1622. The process of electrolytic discharge appears to me to be in close analogy, 

 and perhaps in its nature identical with another process of discharge, which at first 



