Answer to Dr. Hare's Letter, 109 



fectly ; and I have a hope, that when more clearly stated, my 

 views may gain your approbation. I feel that many of the words 

 in the language of electrical science possess much meaning, and 

 yet their interpretation by different philosophers often varies more 

 or less, so that they do not convey exactly the same idea to the 

 minds of different men ; this often renders it difficult, when such 

 words force themselves into use, to express with brevity as much 

 as, and no more than, one really wishes to say. 



ii. My theory of induction (as set forth in series xi, xii, and 

 xiii,) makes no assertion as to the nature of electricity, or at all 

 questions any of the theories respecting that subject (1667.) It 

 does not even include the origination of the developed or excited 

 state of the power or powers ; but taking that as it is given by 

 experiment and observation, it concerns itself only with the ar- 

 rangement of the force in its communication to a distance in that 

 particular yet very general phenomenon called static induction 

 ( ] 668. ) It is neither the nature nor the amount of the force 

 which it decides upon, but solely its mode of distribution. 



iii. Bodies, whether conductors or non-conductors, can be char- 

 ged. The word charge is equivocal ; sometimes it means that 

 state which a glass tube acquires when rubbed by silk, or which 

 the prime conductor of a machine acquires when the latter is in 

 action ; at other times it means the state of a Leyden jar or sim- 

 ilar inductive arrangement when it is said to be charged. In the 

 first case the word means only the peculiar condition of an elec- 

 trified mass of matter considered by itself ; in the second it means 

 the whole of the relations of two such masses charged in opposite 

 states and most intimately connected by inductive action. 



iv. Let three insulated metallic spheres A, B, and C, be placed 

 in a line and not in contact ; let A be electrified positively, and 

 then C uninsulated ; besides the general action of the whole sys- 

 tem on all surrounding matter there will occur a case of inductive 

 action amongst the three balls, which may be considered apart as 

 the type and illustration of the whole of my theory : A will be 

 charged positively, B will acquire the negative state at the surface 

 towards A and the positive state at the surface farthest from it, 

 and C will be charged negatively. 



V. The ball B will be in what is often called a polarized con- 

 dition ; i. e. opposite parts will exhibit the opposite electrical states 

 and the two sums of these opposite states will be exactly equal to 



