Chemistry and Physics. 53 
SCIENTIFIC: INTELLIGEN CE. 
I. Puysics. 
1. Theory of Electricity—Mr. E. Eptunp has published in full 
his theory that electricity is identical with the luminiferous ether, 
e first shows that the velocity A, with which the ether particles 
move, differs from v, the velocity with which this motion is propa- 
gated ; A depends on the current and increases with it, while v 
depends on the ratio of the electricity to the density, but is inde- 
pendent of the current. It is the velocity v which Wheatstone, 
izeau and others have attempted to measure. The objection to 
this theory raised by MM. Roiti and Herwig are due to their over- 
looking the differences in these velocities. 
The memoir deduces theoretically Ampére’s general formula 
and the law of the division of the current between several condue- 
tors, when these contain electro-motive forces. Kirchhoff’s laws 
are therefore an immediate consequence of the proposed theory. 
. 
r . 
The heating produced by a galvanic current and by an electric 
established by Wiedemann for the transport of liquid in the direc- 
tion of the galvanic current and for currents through a diaphragm, 
discovered by M. Quincke. 
S to the rotation of the plane of polarization of light by a 
Current, M. C. Neumann has shown that it can be explained sat- 
isfactorily if we admit that the molecular currents of Ampére act 
%pon the molecules of ether in vibration precisely as if these last 
were electric molecules. The demonstration is based on the form- 
tla given by Weber for the action of an element of a current upon 
hypothesis is confirmed, since according to the views of the author 
the molecular currents of Ampére are merely currents of ether. 
d 
are proportional to their chemical equivalents, requires for its the- 
“retical proof a much more exact knowledge of chemical forces 
than we at present possess. It is not then in the nature of things 
that such a law can be deduced exclusively from a theory of elec- 
real phenomena.— Mem. Swedish Acad. of Sci., XII, No. 8; Bib. 
Univ., ecii, 174, B. . P. 
