169 
and over again with extreme rapidity. Now, whether electricity be 
viewed as a substance or a motion, we may suppose that a polar- 
ized state of particles is alternately produced and destroyed with 
great rapidity while an electrical current passes along a conducting 
wire. ‘ 
And by a polarized state of particles we would mean a peculiar 
disposition with respect to the direction in which the electricity is 
travelling, of the matter , or it may be motion , of the particles of 
the substance. 
Again, an idea very generally entertained with regard to heat is, 
that it consists in a vortical or rotatory motion of the particles of 
a substance. 
Now, with only very general ideas regarding the mode of elec- 
trical conduction and the nature of electricity, we may suppose that 
the polarization which conduction demands will be resisted in pro- 
portion to the rotatory energy of the particle; just as a rapidly 
rotating top or cylinder would resist any attempt to change its 
plane of motion. 
The resistance of a particle to electrical polarization would, there- 
fore, be in proportion to its rotatory vis viva — viz., its absolute tem- 
perature. This only holds with regard to simple bodies ; in com- 
pound bodies the passage of electricity may be supposed to be a 
more complicated phenomenon. 
31s2 January 1859. 
The following Gentleman was duly elected an Ordinary 
Fellow of the Society : — 
Key. John Duns, Torphichen. 
The following Donations to the Library were announced « 
Bulletin la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles. Tome VI. 
Bulletin, No. 43. 8vo . — From the Society. 
Catalogue de la Bibiiotheque de la Societe Vaudoise. 8vo . — From 
the Society. 
Almanaque Nautico para 1860, calculado de orden de S. M. en el 
. Observatorio de Marina de la Ciudad de San Fernando. 8vo. 
—From the Observatory. 
