M. E. Edlund on the Nature of Electricity . 187 



with two eleaients ds and ds in one and the same closed circuit. 

 The galvanic caurent, then, tends from the commencement to 

 produce a current in a direction opposite to its own. The 

 electromotive force of the pile obstructs this motion. 



The sether of the conducting wire which unites the two poles 

 is carried by the force of induction to the positive pole, and 

 there collects until its tension is sufficient to overcome the re- 

 sistance opposed by the electromotive force or to surmount the 

 inductive force. It is perfectly evident that the density of the 

 sether must diminish as the distance from the positive pole in- 

 creases. The quantity of sether coutained in the wire being 

 constant_, when that sether is conducted towards the positive 

 pole there must result a deficit of sether at the negative pole ; 

 and this deficit will be equal to the excess at the positive pole. 

 A direct consequence of the preceding considerations is that the 

 algebraic difference between the excess and the deficit must be 

 proportional to the intensity of the current. 



6. The Chemical and other related phenomena. — The limits of 

 this memoir do not permit us to give here a complete exposition 

 in detail of the application of the above-mentioned theory to the 

 action of the galvanic current. We can only trace the starting- 

 points of the explanation of the chemical phenomena. We will 

 first call attention to the fact that the theory of induction given 

 in the preceding pages has placed at our disposal a new force in 

 permanent activity as long as the current continues. This 

 force, the magnitude of which is determined by formula (16), 

 tends to carry a molecule of sether, previously at rest, in a 

 direction opposite to that of the current itself. Suppose now 

 the current traversing an electrolytic liquid constituting a 

 chemical combination of two elements p and q, and that, ac- 

 cording to the ordinary idea adopted by Berzelius and other 

 chemists, p is electropositive, and q electronegative — that is to 

 say (according to our view), thatjo has an excess and q a deficit 

 of sether. It follows that the molecule p is carried by the 

 current towards the positive pole with a greater force than the 

 molecule q. As this action is effected in every part of the 

 liquid, the latter molecule will even, in pursuance of the Archi- 

 medean principle, endeavour to arrive at the negative pole. If 

 now the force with which the molecules tend in this way to move 

 in opposite directions be greater than their chemical affinity, 

 decomposition will result, and we shall have an excess of the 

 molecules p at the positive pole, and of the molecules q at the 

 negative pole. 



In the first part of this memoir \vc expressed the opinion that 

 the material particles of a liquid can be mechanically carried 

 along with the current^ and that in this fact may be seen the 



