202 M. E. Edlund on the Nature of Galvanic Resistance. 



less, according to the nature of the body ; the other portion is 

 free, and its density equal in all bodies. Of course, however, 

 this does not prevent the aether from experiencing resistance in 

 its passage from the one place to the other. This conclusion 

 was partially verified by Fizeau's well-known investigations on 

 the passage of light through a fluid in motion ; for he was led 

 by his investigation to this result — that one portion of the aether 

 adheres to the molecules of the fluid, while the other portion 

 must be considered free and independent of that motion*. 



According to our view, the galvanic current consists of nothing 

 but the transport of the free aether in the direction of the length 

 of the conductor; and, in a previous memoirf, we have endea- 

 voured to adduce proofs for the correctness of this view. The 

 quantity of aether which the circuit contained when the aether 

 was still at rest, is neither augmented nor diminished by the for- 

 mation of a current ; it is merely put into translatory motion by 

 the electromotive forces. In ordinary galvanic currents these 

 forces expend heat in producing this motion ; so that cooling 

 must ensue at the place where they are in action — perhaps in 

 the same way as a gas compressed within a vessel is cooled 

 when it gets an opportunity of issuing through an opening, in 

 which operation heat-vibrations are expended in order to effect 

 a translatory motion of the gas-particles. The electromotive 

 forces act directly upon the adjacent strata of aether only, and 

 set them in motion ; and, through the pressure hence arising, 

 these occasion the motion of the rest of the mass of aether. As 

 is well known, the aether has very great elasticity. It may 

 therefore be assumed that the pressure producing this motion 

 cannot very much alter the density of the moving aether. 



According to the theory we present of electrical phenomena, 

 the distribution of the electroscopic tensions upon the surface of 

 the conductor which unites the poles of the electromotor is an 

 immediate effect of the current itself. In the hitherto received 

 electrical theory, on the contrary, the electroscopic distribution 

 has been taken for a basis, from which it has been attempted to 

 deduce both the dependence of the current-intensity on the elec- 

 tromotive force and on the resistance (Ohm's law), and also the 

 law of the development of heat by the current. But since, ac- 

 cording to the aether theory, the electroscopic distribution is an 

 effect of the current, and a phenomenon has not to be deduced 

 from its effects, but from its causes, we have held it expedient 

 to theoretically establish these two laws independently of the 

 electroscopic distribution. 



* Comptes Rendus, vol. xxxiii. p. 349. Pogg. Ann. Ergh. iii. p. 457. 

 t Archives des Sciences Phys. et Nat. de Geneve, 18/2. Pogg. Ann. 

 Ergb. vi. Hefte 1 & 2. 



