oF GALVANIC ELECTRICITY 77 



Of Galvanic Electricity. 

 Note GG. 



The phenomena of electricity have been long- known to philosophers : but science 

 has been chiefly indebted, in our own times, to the researches oi Davy, Wollaston, 

 IJiot, Coulomb, Poisson, Oersted, and Becquerel, for a knowledge of the laws by which it 

 is characterized. The observations and experiments of these successful inquirers ap- 

 pear fully to warrant the conclusion, that this very active agent of nature results from 

 two distinct fluids universally diffused through every species of matter. During their 

 circulation, in their electro-motive capacity, through the corpuscles of matter forming 

 the crust of this planet, they accumulate in their free and uncombined state upon its 

 external surface, in consequence of the imperfectly conducting property of the enve- 

 loping- atmosphere. 



The electricities " are thus confined on the superficies of the globe, and indeed of 

 all bodies placed on its exterior, not merely be the non-conducting faculty of the air, 



and 



ae'rial particles rendered fewer in number, and in other favourable circumstances of the 

 atmosphere, as in its humid state, the electric power emanates with rapidity from the 

 the electrized ball. 



Such is the mode of existence of this fluid upon the surface of the earth. But there 

 also exists a continual condensation of the electrical agencies in the substance of the 

 different matters composing the crust of this planet ; and the galvanic, chemical, and 

 other phenomena, clearly show that although such condension of the electricities takes 

 place under particular circumstances of matter yet, a continuous circulation of it is also 

 evident under other relations. This, indeed, is observed to occur during every manifes- 

 tation of the galvanic influence. 



Such then being the case, and as it is now generally believed that the circulation of 

 the electricities through the atoms of matter, or the electro-motive state, as it has with 

 propriety been called, gives rise to the phenomena of galvanism,* which, within these 

 few years, has lead to the most splendid discoveries in the physical world, is it not rea- 

 sonable to suppose that similar operations to those with which galvanic experiments 

 make us acquainted, are continually taking place in the elements of nature ? As it has 

 been shown that every species of matter possesses a certain proportion of the electri- 

 cities, may it not be allowed that under circumstances similar to those with which ex- 

 periment and observation make us acquainted, a continuous current of the different 

 electricities are produced, the rapidity and sensible effects of which vary according to 

 the accidental disposition and situation of the different material bodies, and their natu- 

 ral states of electricity. This opinion is calculated to account for many of the changes 

 which are continually taking place on the face of our globe, and although many may 

 not feel inclined to consider these fluids as the chief agents, no one can deny them a 

 share in producing the effects which are so frequently observed upon its surface. 



The laws of electricity, whether they have been observed in connexion with its free 

 and uncombined state, or in its form of continouous circulation, as displayed in the 



* The galvanic, or electro-motive apparatus may be considered, as producing, by 

 the mutual contact of the heterogeneous bodies w'hich composed it, a development of 

 electricity, which is propagated and distributed through its interior, by means of the 

 conductors interposed between its metallic elements (plates.) If we form a communi- 

 cation between its two poles, the discharge xvhich follows, overturning the state of elec- 

 trical equilibrium, in the series of bodies super-imposed on each other," (and forming 

 the voltaic pile,) "causes them to be recharged, according to the conditions of this 

 equilibrium, either at the expence of the ground, or by the decomposition of their na- 

 "iiral electricities. The repetition then of such discharges, or rather their continuation, 

 must occasion in the apparatus a continued electric current, the energy and the quan- 

 tity of which depend as well on the magnitude and the nature of the metallic element^ 

 in contact with each other, as on the greater or less facility, which the conducting parts 

 of the apparatus present to the transmission of electricity." HIQT. 



