180 : Faraday as a Discoverer, 
originate in the space between two molecules in the act of com- 
bination, or near approach, by reason of the condensation of 
the interstitial electric ether toward the line of the centers, re 
sulting from the oblique attractive action of the molecules. In 
this condensation of the electric ether between molecules that 
are urged nearer to each other, and the expansion of the same 
when they are separated, we find the key to the explanation of 
the different modes of electric excitation (that of the galvanie 
current included). The secret of the intimate relations betwem 
electricity and heat and light, is obvious in view of what 
been stated. a: 
The ethereal atmospheres of molecules, besides playing the 
part already signalized, are the chief determining cause of the 
diverse phenomena that attend the transmission of light through 
transparent media. Thus refraction is chiefly due to ther 
tardation attending the propagation of the ray around from ol 
side to the other of the molecular atmospheres ; dispersion 
the rays in the spectrum, to the fact that the rays of the great- 
est intensity, and slowest rate of vibration, penetrate t0 the 
greatest depth in the molecular atmospheres, pass around 2 
smaller circles, and thus suffer the least retardation; and double | 
refraction to the fact that the atmospheres have @ sphere 
form, owing to unequal molecular compression on different sides 
cnn ee 
Art. XV.—On Faraday as a Discoverer; by JOHN Trxpabl, 
F.R.8.* 
[Continued from page 51.] 
Points of Character. 
the learned Italians in the ¢ Philosophical Magazin 
Si 3 e 
letter dated Dec, Ist 1832 ho was ti 
: . to Gay Lussac, who yred 
of the editors of the ¢ Annales le Chimie,’ in which he anal | 
the results of the Italian philosophers, pointing out their eo | 
