234 



and lead to a 

 new arrange, 

 ment of con- 

 ductors. 



1. Perfect non- 

 conductors. 



i. Perfect con- 

 ductors. 



3. Imperfect 

 conductors. 



NEW CLASSES QF GALtANIC CONDUCTORS. 



me with answers to some of these arguments - / but I hare 

 obtained^ result of much more importance, since I have 

 convinced myself by authentic facts, that in effects of this 

 kind every possible combination is realized ; for, if any sub- 

 stance be applied to the two poles of the pile, one of the 

 five following effects will take place. 



1. Either this substance, not acting separately on either 

 of the two poles, leaves them perfectly insulated, when we 

 attempt to set them in action by its intervention. The re- 

 sult of this perfect insulation is, that the galvanic circuit is 

 not completed ; and that the electric tension remains at its 

 natural maximum at each pole, without our being able to 

 modify it by the interposition of the substance employed. 

 Perfect nonconductors are cold glass, oils, and resins, in 

 every state of aggregation ; water, when solid or in vapour ; 

 &c. 



2. Or the two poles exert, through the intervention of the 

 substance applied, a reciprocal action so intimate, that, per- 

 perfectly neutralizing each other, every phenomenon pecu- 

 liar to each ceases, so that it is impossible to act in a dis- 

 tinct and appreciable manner on either of them. Perfect 

 conductors are all metals without exception, and in the fame 

 degree, at least as far as we know : for it must be observed, 

 that it is only from analogy we ascribe this property to those 

 that have not actually been subjected to experiment; and it 

 is possible, that some metal may have exclusive properties 

 with respect to galvanism, analogous perhaps to those of 

 magnetism and iron. The possibility of this, and the great 

 importance of the discovery, demand a series of experiments, 

 from which we ought not to be deterred by the little proba- 

 bility there is of success. 



3. Or the substance applied to the two poles permits their 

 reciprocal action, and completes the galvanic circuit, but in 

 such an imperfect manner, that the distinct effect of each 

 pole will continue to manifest itself, and that it will be pos- 

 sible, by the intervention of the substance applied, to in- 

 fluence each pole separately, according as we act on one 

 extremity of the imperfect conductor or on the other. This 

 property, which I have demonstrated in moist conductors, 

 and in water itself, is so much the more important to be 



studied. 



