Explanation of Assimilation 341 
For this purpose let us suppose in conformity with the 
hypothesis set forth above that one could construct an 
elementary electric accumulator capable of furnishing a 
single given intensity or specificity of current and that its 
electro-motive force or difference of potential between the 
poles is proportional to the mass of substance constituting 
its charge; as if each new increment however small of this 
mass constituted an element by itself which would be 
added in serial order to the others. 
A A Let us consider two of these accumu- 
lators, A and A’, inserted with their 
? \\—- hp poles inverted in the same circuit. Sup- 
7 NC pose they are quite identical, except 
that the one, A’, is entirely without 
charge, and the other, A, has its full 
charge. Let us suppose now that the 
current, c, generated by A which tends 
to charge A’ can under certain circum- 
stances cause an oscillatory discharge, 
i. e., a continuous oscillation of the 
current, now in the direction of c, now 
in the contrary direction c’, and that certain external alternating 
currents could induce in the oscillating circuit sinusoidal electro- 
motive forces of the same frequence as this oscillating discharge 
and thereby strengthen the sinusoidal electro-motor force of the 
latter which at the beginning was determined by the original dif- 
ference in charge of the two accumulators A and A’. 
Then with each half oscillation the one accumulator 
will become more strongly charged in proportion as the 
other discharges, and there will be produced as a final 
result of the series of oscillations a consequent continual 
increase of the total mass of the two accumulators A and 
A’, as long as the saline solution serving as their common 
aliment is not insufficient. 
If the amount of electro-motive force contributed by 
the induction current at each oscillation is proportional 
