TRANSVERSE FORCES OF THE CURRENT — ^THEIR POLARITY. 167 



1661. Now though we perceive the effects only in that portion of matter wliich, 

 being in the neighbourhood, has conducting properties, yet hypothetically it is pro- 

 bable, that the non-conducting matter has also its relations to, and is affected by, the 

 disturbing cause, though we have not yet discovered them. Again and again the 

 relation of conductors and non-conductors has been shown to be one not of opposi- 

 tion in kind, but only of degree (1334. 1603.) ; and, therefore, for this, as well as for 

 other reasons, it is probable, that what will affect a conductor will affect an insulator 

 also ; producing perhaps what may deserve the term of the electrotonic state (60. 

 242. 1114). 



1662. It is the feeling of the necessity of some lateral connexion between the lines 

 of electric force (1114.) ; of some link in the chain of effects as yet unrecognised, 

 that urges me to the expression of these speculations. The same feeling has led 

 me to make many experiments on the introduction of insulating dielectrics having 

 different inductive capacities (1270. 1277-) between magnetic poles and wires carrying 

 currents, so as to pass across the lines of magnetic force. I have employed such 

 bodies both at rest and in motion, without, as yet, being able to detect any influence 

 produced by them ; but I do by no means consider the experiments as sufficiently 

 delicate, and intend, very shortly, to render them more decisive. 



1663. I think the hypothetical question may at present be put thus : can such con- 

 siderations as those already generally expressed (1658.) account for the transverse 

 effects of electrical currents? are two such currents in relation to each other 

 merely by the inductive condition of the particles of matter between them, or are 

 they in relation by some higher quality and condition (1654.), which, acting at a 

 distance and not by the intermediate particles, has, like the force of gravity, no re- 

 lation to them ? 



1664. If the latter be the case, then, when electricity is acting upon and in matter, 

 its direct and its transverse action are essentially different in their nature ; for the 

 former, if I am correct, will depend upon the contiguous particles, and the latter will 

 not. As I have said before, this may be so, and I incline to that view at present, but 

 I am desirous of suggesting considerations why it may not, that the question may be 

 thoroughly sifted. 



1665. The transverse power has a character of polarity impressed upon it. In the 

 simplest forms it appears as attraction or repulsion, according as the currents are in 

 the same or different directions : in the current and the magnet it takes up the con- 

 dition of tangential forces ; and in magnets and their particles produces poles. Since 

 the experiments have been made which have persuaded me that the polar forces of 

 electricity, as in induction and electrolytic action (1298. 1343.), show effects at a di- 

 stance only by means of the polarized contiguous and intervening particles, I have 

 been led to expect that all polar forces act in the same general manner ; and the other 

 kinds of phenomena which one can bring to bear upon the subject seem fitted to 

 strengthen that expectation. Thus in crystallizations the effect is transmitted from 



