392 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



terposing a greater space between the lines of currents travelling 

 together through the liquid), the resistance diminished in a certain 

 proportion — showing evidently a mutual interference between the 

 various currents emanating from the points and traversing the liquid 

 together. Similar experiments were made with electrodes consist- 

 ing of a group of small plates with varnished backs; and it was also 

 found that the resistance of the liquid decreased as the plates com- 

 posing each electrode were set at a greater distance apart ; such di- 

 minution of resistance was more marked when the plates of these 

 compound electrodes were close together, relatively to the distance 

 between the electrodes themselves, and became inappreciable after a 

 certain limit had been attained. 



In another experiment a glass plate, immersed in the liquid, was 

 interposed between the electrodes, and the current passed through a 

 rectangular aperture made in the plate ; after observing the resist- 

 ance, the plate was replaced by another, in which two apertures 

 were made, but of only half the width, so as to divide the current 

 into two branches preserving the same area of passage. This expe- 

 riment was repeated with apertures of various widths ; and it was 

 found in all cases that, upon splitting the current into two branches 

 without diminishing the transverse section, the resistance diminished, 

 proving that two currents travelling side by side in a liquid weaken 

 each other by mutual interference. But other experiments, made 

 by Marianini, showed that two currents, furnished by two indepen- 

 dent piles, traverse a liquid together without interfering with each 

 other. Dr. Macaluso repeated these experiments with greater exact- 

 ness and with means of noting and measuring the derived currents 

 resulting from the mutual influence of the two circuits, and found 

 Marianini's conclusions to be true. It follows, therefore, that cur- 

 rents travelling together through a liquid do not interfere when fur- 

 nished by independent piles, and that they do interfere when furnished 

 by the same pile — as in the case of two rays of light, which can be 

 made to interfere only when emanating both from the same source. 



From these various researches the author draws the following in- 

 ferences : — " The facts so far known regarding the passage of electric 

 currents through liquids lead us to imagine that the transmission 

 takes place chiefly by electrolysis. According to Grotthus's theory, 

 which seems the most probable, electrolytic decomposition occurs in 

 such a manner that if a particle M A of a salt is decomposed at one 

 of the poles, for instance the positive pole, such decomposition pro- 

 pagates itself all along a line of particles to the other pole ; the por- 

 tion M of the molecule remaining free at the positive electrode 

 completes itself by decomposing its neighbouring particle, taking 

 from it and appropriating a portion of matter similar to that of which 

 it has been deprived by the electrode ; the second particle so decom- 

 posed acts similarly upon a third, and so on, until at the other elec- 

 trode the part M is obtained free. And if, instead of a single par- 

 ticle, n particles are acted upon by the electrode, the successive 

 decompositions and combinations take place along n lines of mole- 

 cules between the electrodes. 



