TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 391 



tissue, tlie length of each filament being regarded as indefinite 

 in comparison with the smallness of the elementary impulses to 

 which it is supposed to be subjected during the excitement of 

 electi-ic phaenomena. And from the well known pheenomena 

 of extended chords, he infers that each must undulate in a ser- 

 pentine manner, the point where the exciting impulse is ap- 

 plied being the centre of a vibrating portion, which may be 

 called the primary ; and this accompanied on both hands by 

 ulterior vibrating portions, which may be called reciprocal or 

 secondary, and whose phases of motion must ever tend to be 

 exactly opposite to that of the primary or central part, and 

 would of course succeed in being so could the filament consist- 

 ing of the primary and two secondary vibrating portions be 

 regarded as an elastic chord stretched between two fixed nuts 

 at its extremities. But since the filament, as has been stated, 

 is in the present case to be viewed as of indefinite length, and 

 instead of being stopped by two nuts at two definite points, is 

 to be viewed as equally prepared for being stopped at every 

 point, and so is analogous to an extended chord possessing 

 many moveable nuts which spontaneously shift their position so 

 as to be always adapted to the impulse, he concludes that the 

 central vibratory portion, and the two reciprocal or secondary 

 vibratory portions, will not be in unison, but the latter shorter 

 and consequently more rapid in their movements, and taken 

 together equivalent to the central or primary one in the quan- 

 tity of motion they embody. Such is the theory from which 

 he thinks all the phaenomena of electric action may be deduced, 

 without calling in the aid of electric fluids. 



Mr. Mac Vicar then proceeds to apply his theory to the ex- 

 planation of electric polarity and induction, and points out the 

 analogy between the production of light by undulations in the 

 vmiversal aether, and the excitement of electrical phfenomena 

 by undulations in denser media. 



Inquiry into the Cause of Endosmose and Exosmose. By the 



Rev. J. Power. 



The author investigates these phgenomena upon La Place's 

 principles of capillary attraction. 



The two fluids are supposed to communicate by means of a 

 capillary tube, which has a stronger attraction for one than the 

 other. The attraction between the particles of the opposite 

 fluids is supposed to be greater than the attraction of the par- 

 ticles of either fluid for particles of their own kind. Also the 

 attraction between the particles of the tube and of the more 



