1904-5.] Mr J. Fraser on Electricity based on Bubble Atom. 701 
the swiftest set of particles must lose speed and the slowest set 
gain an exactly equivalent quantity. The one set, then, will be 
electrified negatively, and the other set will gain an equal hut 
opposite positive charge. When they are liberated by electrolysis 
in an electrolytic cell, those having a positive charge go to the 
negative side of the arrangement and those having a negative go 
to the positive. As an example let us take water, whose com- 
position is two atoms of hydrogen to one of oxygen. In the 
water voltameter the hydrogen goes to the kathode with a 
positive charge, and the oxygen to the anode with a negative, 
from which we may conclude that the particles of oxygen move 
with a greater speed than those of hydrogen, and that when they 
unite into a molecule to form water the oxygen particles lose 
speed which the hydrogen particles gain, and which the latter 
deliver up at the kathode, to be carried through the outer 
circuit through the battery to the anode, and re-delivered there 
to the oxygen, both gases coming away in a neutral state. 
The current, then, according to this theory, is nothing more 
nor less than the excess of motion of one set of particles passing 
over by a suitable path to another set ichich are relatively deficient 
in motion. 
28. There is a tendency in nature for all bodies to gravitate 
to the lowest attainable level. There is also a tendency in 
heated bodies to distribute their heat until all have attained the 
same level of temperature ; in the same way there would be, in 
my hypothetical atoms and molecules, a tendency to distribute 
their electricity until all had attained to the same electrical 
potential (see par. 11). When ordinary zinc is plunged into 
an acid the oxygen, or negative ion, of the acid tends to unite 
with the zinc, first because the oxygen has a greater supply of 
electricity than the zinc, and second because by uniting with the 
zinc the oxygen would gain a firmer hold upon it than it has 
of the hydrogen of the acid. It therefore loses its hold upon it 
and unites with the zinc. The process, would be somewhat as 
follows : The surface portions of the atoms of the zinc plate must 
be fully rounded hemispheres, their under surfaces, being united 
to their fellows, must be in a partially collapsed state, so that 
their upper surfaces contain a good deal of electricity. But the 
