32 Miscellaneous Notices on Galvanic Results. 



circuit ; and eventually heated two inches of the positive wire 

 to bright redness ; but no such heat took place on the other wire. 

 Thus satisfying myself that I was not mistaken, I called Mr. 

 Mason to come and look at it ; and after satisfying that gentle- 

 man by an experiment or two, we called Mr. Gassiot and Mr. 

 Walker to come and witness the novel phenomenon. We now 

 changed the places of the polar wires, making that positive which 

 before had been negativ^e, &c. Still the positive wire showed 

 the same fact. You will easily understand that I experienced a 

 great degree of pleasure at the appearance of this beautiful fact, 

 which seemed to demonstrate the justness of the hypothesis I had 

 so long formed. No two bodies can be in the same place at the 

 same time, is an old axiom in philosophy. Hence the blacksmith 

 is enabled to heat his iron rod or nail, by compressing the calo- 

 rific matter ; the blows of his hammer forcing it from the cavi- 

 ties into the particles of the metal. Thus, also, the electric fluid 

 forces the calorific matter from its natural lodgings in the con- 

 ductor, and drives it on even to beyond the electrical stream, to 

 take refuge, in a compressed form, in the extremity of the posi- 

 tive wire. Nothing can be more simple to explain ; nor do I 

 know of an experiment that tends more to support the doctrine 

 of o?ie species of electric matter only ; and that it moves through 

 the voltaic conducting wires, from the positive to the negative 

 pole. I have more experiments on this point, but they are not 

 yet in a passable form. 



" To produce the phenomenon I have been describing, requires 

 an extensive series of pairs ; certainly not less than one hundred 

 and twenty, but two hundred would answer much better, as 

 much depends upon the play of the fluid between the wires; and 

 I think that the battery is quite as well when not highly charged. 

 I have mentioned one hundred and twenty as the shortest to in- 

 sure success, although it is possible that one hundred mighjt shew 

 the fact." 



Extracts from the Memoir of Mr. Walker. 



"An interesting phenomenon presented itself, in the deflagration 

 of mercury. The wires used to connect cell 1 and cell 160 with 

 the decomposing or other apparatus were of copper, y'^th inch in 

 diameter, well insulated with Indian-rubber cloth, and covered 

 with Indian-rubber cut from thin sheets. When the negative 



