18 A. M. Mayer on '■'■(he electro-tonic stated 



there is some connected and correspondent effect produced by 

 this lateral action of the elements of the electric stream during 

 the time of its continuance. An action of this kind, in fact, is 

 evident in the magnetic relations of the parts of the current 

 But admitting (as we may do for the moment) the magnetic 

 forces to constitute the power which produces such striking and 

 different results at the commencement and termination of a cur- 

 rent, still there appears to be a link in the chain of effects, a 

 wheel in the physical mechanism of the action, as yet unrecog- 

 nized." Again, in 1838, (Exp. Res. 1661) he recurs to the idea 

 of the electro-tonic state, in speaking of " the transverse effect 

 of a current ;" and in his " Relation of the electric and mag- 

 netic forces " (Exp. Res. 1729) he states, " It appears to me pos- 

 sible, therefore, and even probable, that magnetic action may be 

 communicated to a distance by the action of the intervening 

 particles, in a manner having a relation to the way in which the 

 inductive forces of static electricity are transferred to a dis- 

 tance ; the intervening particles assuming for the time more or 

 less of a peculiar condition, which, (though with a very imper- 

 fect idea) I have several times expressed by the term eleciro- 

 tanic state.'' 



As late as 1851, Faraday yet hopes that future research may 

 verify his idea of the electro-tonic stato. for in liis ]);i]H>r "on 

 the lines of magnetic force," after havin,<f sliowii the relation of 

 the magneto-electric current to the electro-f-MTuluctiri^^ jKuver of 

 the substance in which it is induced, he writes (Kxp. H(^s. 3172- 

 73), "All the results described are those obtained with moving 

 metals. But mere motion would not generate a relation, which 

 had not a foundation m the existence of some previous state ; 

 and therefore the quiescent metals must be in some relation to 

 the active center of force, and that not necessarily dependent 

 on their paramagnetic or diamagnetic condition, because a metal 

 at zero in that respect, would have an electric current genera- 

 ted in it as well as the others. The relation is not as the attrac- 

 tions or repulsions of the metals, and therefore not magnetic in 

 the common sense of the word ; but according to some other 

 functions of the power. ***** if such a condition 

 be hereafter verified by experiment, and the idea of an electro- 

 tonic state be revived and established, then, such bodies as 

 water, oil, resin, &c., will probably be included in the same 

 state ; for the non-conducting condition, which prevents the for- 

 mation of a current in them, does not militate against the exist- 

 ence of that condition, whicli is prior to the effect of motion. 

 A piece of copper, which cannot have the current, because it is 

 not in a circuit, and a piece of lac, which cannot, because it is 

 a non-conductor of electricity, may have peculiar but analo- 

 gous states, when moving across a field of magnetic power." 



