DISTURBANCES IN THE LAW OF THE REPULSIVE FORCE. 
433 
accumulation of the free electricity toward the opposite extremity b, may still gene- 
rate a very sensible attractive force ; the tendency of the inductive process being, first 
to raise the anti-attractive state of the bodies to zero ; secondly, to generate in them 
an actual attractive power. There is consequently no essential distinction in this 
action, whether it take place between two bodies each similarly charged, or between 
a charged and neutral body, or even between two bodies dissimilarly charged ; the 
only difference being, that in the latter case the inductions commence at a point 
already beyond a limit, which may be called zero ; in the two former they commence 
in the one case at zero, in the other at some point below it. I hope to lay before the 
Royal Society, at no very distant period, some new researches on electrical induction 
and attraction, which may possibly throw some further light on the nature of electrical 
forces. It is quite evident that the inductive process between two bodies similarly 
charged may become indefinitely modified by the various circumstances of quantity, 
intensity, distance of the charged bodies, and the like ; giving rise to apparently 
complicated phenomena, as I think appear in the results of the experiments just 
given in Table IV. Thus in column A, where the charges on the discs are equal and 
of a given intensity, the resistance in one body to the inductive tendency of the other 
is at the given distances so great, that little or no attractive effect ensues, and the re- 
pulsive force proceeds according to a certain law ; but in columns C, b, c, d, &c., where 
the resistance to electrical change by induction in one or both of the bodies is 
less, the decrease of the force is more sensible, and as the distances diminish, be- 
comes more and more evident, until at last the repulsive force no longer increases, 
and is in some cases superseded by attraction. It is ouly, therefore, within certain 
limits that we should expect to find the results of experiment, in any instance, con- 
formable to a regular law, even although the bodies be equally charged : thus in 
column B it may be perceived that the law of the force has become irregular, and as 
the distances further diminish, varies inversely as the simple distance. Such is also 
the case in columns C, c. 
17. Experiment E. — This conclusion was further verified by operating at first with 
charges of a low intensity at small distances, viz. between 0 and 10°, and then by greatly 
increasing the sensibility of the instrument, examining the action of the same charges at 
distances more extended, or otherwise by taking such electrical intensities as showed, 
with a given reactive force, the march of the repulsion between very extensive limits, 
the discs being either equally or unequally charged. The results were in strict ac- 
cordance with those already given in Table IV. : the law of the force, which at first 
was as -^ 2 , became at a certain point irregular as the distances decreased, and after 
being as became in some cases again irregular, until at last the repulsion vanished 
altogether, and was superseded by attraction. 
18. The deviations from a uniform law of action being thus evident, even with two 
3 K 
MDCCCXXXVI. 
