HEW CLASSES OF GALVANIC CONDUCTORS. 335 



ceiving between the two polar wires of a pile, furnished 



with its electrometer, the current of vapour from an eolipile 



near the orifice, where it has its whole transparency, and 



is free from all mixture of vesicular vapour and precipitated 



water ? When by a well-managed heat tboroughly dried Soap when 



soap is brought to a considerable degree of softness, this? aeltedis , a per " 

 . . ,., , ° ' feet conductor. 



substance likewise undergoes a gradual change in its faculty 



of conducting the electricity of the pile ; and the nearer it 



approaches a state of liquefaction, the more it loses the 



property of insulating the positive electricity in completing 



the circle between the two poles, so that ultimately we 



perceive evident traces of the decomposition of water in the 



interposed apparatus. Other substances lead to chemico- 



physical researches not less interesting. Sulphur is a non- Sulphur and its 



conductor ; so is its flame. Phosphorus and amber are both flame conduct. 



nonconductors; but their flames are conductors, ff ere fe ^beft no^ 



one anomaly. But how again are we to account for they ettheir flame* 



difference in these two conducting flames? Why, in closing J°' t opposite 



the circle between the two poles, does that of phosphorus electricities, 



insulate the negative effect, and that of amber the positive ? 



It is very probable, that all these varieties of action are Perhaps the 

 intimately connected with the chemical affinities of the two P hen °mena 

 elements of the electric fluid; and we may flatter ourselves [oThelhemfcal 

 with the hope of some day obtaining results of importance, affinities of tv 

 by sedulously varying and analyzing these facts. Lest how- eleCtn ° flmdS * 

 ever I should be accused of exaggerating the importance of 

 these phenomena, in deferring their explanation, by way of 

 concluding I will mention some hypotheses, which have for- 

 merly guided my researches, but which no longer appear 

 plausible to me, since the facts that have presented them- 

 selves to me have become more numerous and diversified. I 

 relate these only to show, that I have sincerely endeavoured 

 to lay open the whole subject, so as to reduce it to a simple 

 "is this all?" 



Do conducting flames, which in completing the circle in- Hypothesis that 

 sulate the negative effect, owe this property to a stratum of oil is deposited 

 oil, which, formed of its elementary principles in the act ^ ^"^ 

 of combustion, and deposited on the negative wire, renders 

 it impermeable to the electric fluid ? Carbon, hidrogen, 

 and oxigen, exist in fact in most substances, which by their 



combusfioa 



