144 MR. FARADAY’S EXPERIiMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY. 
induction and the discharge of the electro-tonic condition are simultaneous:, 
and not successive, the return current would only be equivalent to the neutra¬ 
lization of the last portion of the inducing current, and would not therefore 
show any alteration of direction ; or assuming that time did intervene, and 
that the latter current was really distinct from the former, its short, sudden 
character (12. 26.) would prevent it from being thus recognised. 
75. No difficulty arises, I think, in considering the wire thus rendered electro¬ 
tonic by its own current more than by any external current, especially when 
the apparent non-interference of that state with currents is considered (62. 71 .). 
The simultaneous existence of the conducting and electro-tonic states finds an 
analogy in the manner in which electrical currents can be passed through 
magnets where it is found that both the currents passed, and those of the 
magnets, preserve all their properties distinct from each other, and exert their 
mutual actions. 
76. The reason given with regard to metals extends also to fluids and all 
other conductors, and leads to the conclusion that when electric currents are 
passed through them they also assume the electro-tonic state. Should that 
prove to be the case, its influence in voltaic decomposition, and the transference 
of the elements to the poles, can hardly be doubted. In the electro-tonic state 
the homogeneous particles of matter appear to have assumed a regular but 
forced electrical arrangement in the direction of the current, which if the 
matter be undecomposable produces, when relieved, a return current; but in 
decomposable matter this forced state may be sufficient to make an elementary 
particle leave its companion, with which it is in a constrained condition, and 
associate with the neighbouring similar particle, in relation to which it is in a 
more natural condition, the forced electrical arrangement being itself dis¬ 
charged or relieved, at the same time, as effectually as if it had been freed from 
induction. But as the original voltaic current is continued, the electro-tonic 
state may be instantly renewed, producing the forced arrangement of the com¬ 
pound particles, to be as instantly discharged by a transference of the elemen¬ 
tary particles of the opposite kind in opposite directions, but parallel to the cur¬ 
rent. Even the differences between common and voltaic electricity when ap¬ 
plied to effect chemical decomposition, which Dr. Wollaston has pointed out *, 
* Philosophical Transactions, 1801. p. 247. 
