Faraday as a Discoverer. 187 
found that at the point where the electricity entered the paper, 
litmus was reddened, and at the point where it quitted the paper, 
turmeric was browned. ‘‘ Here,” he urges, ‘the poles are en- 
tirely abandoned, but we have still electro-chemical decompo- 
sition.” Itis evident to him that instead of being attracted 
by the poles, the bodies separated are ejected by the current. 
The effects thus obtained with poles of air he also succeeded in 
obtaining with poles of water. The advance in Faraday’s own 
ideas made at this time is indicated by the word “ ejected.”” 
He afterwards reiterates this view: the evolved substances are 
expelled from the decomposing body and “not drawn out by an 
attraction.” 
Having abolished this idea of polar attraction, he proceeds 
to enunciate and develop a theory of his own. He refers to 
Davy’s celebrated Bakerian Lecture given in 1806, which he 
says “isalmost entirely occupied in the consideration of electro- 
chemical decompositions.” The facts recorded in that lecture 
araday regards as of the utmost value. But ‘the mode of 
action by which the effects take place is stated very generally; 
80 generally indeed, that probably a dozen precise schemes of 
electro-chemical action might be drawn up, differing essentially 
from each other, yet all agreeing with the statement there 
ven.” 
It appears to me that these words might with justice be ap- 
plied to Faraday’s own researches at this time. They furnish 
us with results of permanent value; but little help can be found 
in the theory advanced to account for them. It would, perhaps, 
