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the apparently reverse position — that is, axial for equatorial, 
or the equatorial for axial — instead of that which they would 
have taken if suspended between the faces of the polar 
pieces. If I do not misunderstand Professor Oerstead's 
deductions from these phenomena, he seems to have sup- 
posed that under such circumstances the metal acquired a 
different state, or a different direction of polarity in regard 
to magnetism, when suspended above, than between the 
polar pieces. It did not appear to me that this was the 
case, but that all apparent anomalies might be most easily 
explained by considering the direction and distribution of 
the magnetic forces exhibited by the polar pieces when 
distant and when close. On examining the polar pieces 
when separated about half an inch, by means of a very 
small and delicately-suspended disc of metal, either mag- 
netic or dia-magnetic, it is ascertained that the magnetic 
force is most strongly developed, as though upon the 
exterior of such parts of the polar pieces as are opposed 
to each other ; and that with polar pieces having plane sur- 
faces, similar to those employed in these experiments, the 
magnetic force is more strongly developed at the corners 
of the opposed parallelograms. Thus it appears that when 
the polar pieces are distant, the line about which the dis- 
position of the magnetic force is a maximum, is the axial 
line joining the two poles; but that when the polar pieces 
are brought very closely together, the greatest intensity of 
the magnetic forces is upon the two parallel lines on the 
upper edges of the opposed faces; and the two parallel 
lines being very near each other, may be considered as a 
single line in regard to their action upon the suspended 
piece of metal ; and it may also be observed that the forces 
are greater towards the extremities than at the middle of 
such lines, so that the direction of the magnetic force 
becomes virtually equatorial instead of axial, in regard to 
