Conducting Power of Solid and Liquid Bodies. 333 



low men. We think, however, that it is susceptible of improve- 

 ment, and that in another edition it will receive some condensa- 

 tion and pruning, that will render it still more graceful and im- 

 pressive. Its moral tendency is excellent, and no believer in 

 the truths of the Bible can peruse the volume without feeling 

 his mind much enlightened and his faith invigorated. 



SEN. EDITOR. 



Art. XXII. — Second Memoir on the Conducting Power of Solid 



and Liquid Bodies ; by Ed. BEcquEREL.* 



M. Peltier, as is well known, showed that the elevation of 

 temperature at the point of junction of two conductors of differ- 

 ent metals conducting a current; differs according to the direction 

 of the current, that of other parts of the circuit remaining un- 

 changed, and that when the current passes from antimony to bis- 

 muth,! an elevation of temperature takes place at the point of 

 junction and a depression when it passes in the opposite direction. 



The author concludes from his researches that generally the 

 thermo-electric current generated by heating the point of junc- 

 tion of two different metals in a circuit, tends to produce a depres- 

 sion of temperature at that point of junction. In other words, 

 the state of inequality of temperature produced by an electric 

 current in a heterogeneous circuit is the inverse of that by which 

 the current itself would be produced. Hence a certain portion of 

 the heat employed to generate a thermo-electric current is con- 

 sumed by the latter, and must be replenished by the heating 

 source in order to maintain the current. This view it may be 

 important to remember in the arrangement of thermoscopes for 



certain purposes. 



He concludes farther, that resistance to conduction, in a hetero- 

 geneous circuit, as might be anticipated, does not seem to change 

 with the direction of the current except so far as it may be a con- 



of the current. 



tempe 



'/ 



'liquid conductors. 



This, technically termed by the author "resistance to transit," 

 is universally attributed to the chemical affinities that must be 

 dissolved by the passing current, nor are we inclined to believe 

 any part of it is to be attributed to a distinct force classed by the 



, This ar : » an abstract , . f Beoqoerel's weond memoir, prepared for this Jour- 



n *Uy Mr. Jonathan 11. Lam of the Patent Offi.v. Wmhau i. 



t The rev,, order is stated in I cqw i « "tide, but this we presume must be 



80 oversight 



Second Series, Vol. VIII. No. 24— Nov., 1849. 43 



