112 Prof. Norton on Molecular Physics. 



portional to the "reduced" length of the circuit. During this 

 period all the electricity set in motion by the union of the two 

 particles should pass through the circuit, or, more strictly, be 

 urged forward past each point of the circuit, in electric " waves 

 of translation." The quantity of electricity that moves forward 

 in a given time should then be inversely proportional to the 

 length of the circuit, other things being the same. The reason 

 that the quantity of electricity, or the intensity of the current, 

 is proportional to the area of the cross section of the wire is, pro- 

 bably, that the number of points of the zinc plate which are con- 

 temporaneously in action, with the same degree of energy, would 

 be proportional to this cross section. The tension of the elec- 

 tricity circulating in the current should be the greatest where 

 the velocity of the individual particles of the aether is the least. 

 Possible retardations result from the electric relations of conti- 

 guous molecules in the line being such that they become more or 

 less polarized, and so offer a resistance to the free flow of the 

 electricity (p. 104), besides that the process of polarization is 

 attended with a retardation. The degree of polarization that 

 exists at any point of the current serves as a measure of the 

 " resistance " experienced by the current there. 



If an electrolyte be disposed between the ends of the wires, the 

 theory of its electrolysis is similar to that of the decomposition 

 of the water in the cell. The only difference is that the ends of 

 the wires are brought by the electromotive force into the same 

 positive and negative states which the natural chemical action 

 in the cell determines upon the zinc and copper plates. 



When two or more cells are employed, the natural polarizing 

 action at each zinc plate should be enhanced, and the tension of 

 the free electricity at the ends of the wires of the broken cir- 

 cuit should be augmented. Hence there should be a more ener- 

 getic force to polarize and decompose an electrolyte interposed 

 between the ends of the wires. But it does not follow that when 

 only good conducting wires are employed to complete the circuit 

 the intensity of the current will be augmented by increasing 

 the number of cells ; since the principal retardation of the flow 

 occurs in the cells, and this increases in the same proportion 

 with the number of cells. (See Pouillet, Elements de Physique, 

 vol. ii. p. 732.) 



The heat developed in the voltaic current is to be ascribed to 

 the impulsive action of the electric sether moving in it upon the 

 universal sether. Currents, or waves of translation, are thus de- 

 veloped in this sether which fall upon the central atoms of the 

 material molecules in the circuit, or the dense sether surrounding 

 these atoms. The impulses thus received are given off, or pass 

 into the molecular atmospheres one after another, and are finally 



