i88i.] The Source of Electric Energy. 385 
energy. There is, in faCt, a resistance to inclusive aCtion, 
which varies in different substances ; and it is, therefore, 
probable that the most vigorous induCtive influence must 
soon be rendered null in a di-eleCtric medium, though it 
seems capable of producing effects at very great distances in 
conducting material. 
InduCtive aCtion seems to be, in its primary character, a 
strictly molecular influence, its tendency being to disturb 
the motive conditions of molecules. If the substance affeCted 
be a non-conduCtor of electricity, this is the limit of the 
induCtive effeCt. But if it be a conductor, this first effeCt is 
followed by a second, the eleCtric disturbance ceases to be 
confined to the molecules as individuals, and affeCts the 
mass as a whole. When, for instance, a charged conductor 
is surrounded by an insulating medium, its induCtive effeCt 
upon this medium is certainly not of the mass as a whole, 
and therefore must be of the molecules as individuals. Its 
character is, probably, a disturbance of motive conditions, 
and its result is the appearance of positive electricity at one 
end, pole, or atom of the molecule, and of negative at the 
other. In the case of a conductor we have but to substitute 
the word mass for molecule, and the same description 
applies. 
The mode of induCtive aCtion may be a separation of the 
normal or heat movement of the molecule into two dis- 
similar components, one above and one below the normal 
vibratory pitch, which respectively occupy or affeCt the poles 
of the molecule, or the two atoms, or two sets of atoms, of 
which it is made up. If we view the molecule as composed 
of two atoms, or two molecular constituents, one of these 
may be forced to vibrate at a rate above that normal to the 
molecule, and the other at a rate below the normal, they 
being thus respectively in positive and negative eleCtric 
states. Such a discordance in motive relations set up be- 
tween the atomic components of a molecule would presum- 
ably tend to weaken their cohesion, and to render the 
molecule susceptible to chemical change. In the case of 
electrolytic phenomena, we have such a susceptibility as a 
strongly declared feature of induCtive aCtion. 
Before pursuing this line of thought further, however, it 
may be well to briefly consider certain probable conditions 
of molecular organisation. We may, in faCt, look upon a 
molecule as a minute mass composed of atoms, in the same 
manner as a mass is composed of molecules. And very 
probably the same motive relations exist between the mole- 
cule and its atomic components as between the mass and its 
