ive.

1522. This result appeared to indicate that the point which had been giving
off one electricity, was, by that, more fitted for a short time to give off
the other. But on closer examination I found the whole depended upon the
inductive reaction of that air, which being charged by the point, and
gradually increasing in quantity before it, as the positive or negative
issue was continued, diverted and removed a part of the inductive action of
the surrounding wall, and thus apparently affected the powers of the point,
whilst really it was the dielectric itself that was causing the change of
tension.

* * * * *

1523. The results connected with the different conditions of positive and
negative discharge will have a far greater influence on the philosophy of
electrical science than we at present imagine, especially if, as I believe,
they depend on the peculiarity and degree of polarized condition which the
molecules of the dielectrics concerned acquire (1503. 1600.). Thus, for
instance, the relation of our atmosphere and the earth within it, to the
occurrence of spark or brush, must be especial and not accidental (1464.).
It would not else consist with other meteorological phenomena, also of
course dependent on the special properties of the air, and which being
themselves in harmony the most perfect with the functions of animal and
vegetable life, are yet restricted in their actions, not by loose
regulations, but by laws the most precise.

1524. Even in the passage through air of the voltaic current we see the
peculiarities of positive and negative discharge at the two charcoal
points; and if these discharges are made to take place simultaneously to
mercury, the distinction is still more remarkable, both as to the sound and
the quantity of vapour produced.

1525. It seems very possible that the remarkable difference recently
observed and described by my friend Professor Daniell[A], namely, that when
a zinc and a copper ball, the same in size, were placed respectively in
copper and zinc spheres, also the same in size, and excited by electrolytes
or dielectrics of the same strength and nature, the zinc ball far surpassed
the zinc sphere in action, may also be connected with these phenomena; for
it is not difficult to conceive how the polarity of the particles shall be
affected by the circumstance of the positive surface, namely the zinc,
being the larger or the smaller of the two inclosin