as _more
powerful_ the nearer they are to their respective poles, and state that the
positive current is _superior_ in power to the negative current[A].

[A] Annales de Chimie, 1807, tom. lxiii. p. 83, &c.

486. M. Biot is very cautious in expressing an opinion as to the cause of
the separation of the elements of a compound body[A]. But as far as the
effects can be understood, he refers them to the opposite electrical states
of the portions of the decomposing substance in the neighbourhood of the
two poles. The fluid is most positive at the positive pole; that state
gradually diminishes to the middle distance, where the fluid is neutral or
not electrical; but from thence to the negative pole it becomes more and
more negative[B]. When a particle of salt is decomposed at the negative
pole, the acid particle is considered as acquiring a negative electrical
state from the pole, stronger than that of the surrounding _undecomposed_
particles, and is therefore repelled from amongst them, and from out of
that portion of the liquid towards the positive pole, towards which also it
is drawn by the attraction of the pole itself and the particles of positive
_undecomposed_ fluid around it[C].

[A] Precis Elementaire de Physique, 3me edition, 1824, tom. i. p. 641.

[B] Ibid. p. 637.

[C] Ibid. pp. 641, 642.

487. M. Biot does not appear to admit the successive decompositions and
recompositions spoken of by Grotthuss, Davy, &c. &c.; but seems to consider
the substance whilst in transit as combined with, or rather attached to,
the electricity for the time[A], and though it communicates this
electricity to the surrounding undecomposed matter with which it is in
contact, yet it retains during the transit a little superiority with
respect to that kind which it first received from the pole, and is, by
virtue of that difference, carried forward through the fluid to the
opposite pole[B].

[A] Precis Elementaire de Physique, 3me edition, 1824, tom. i. p. 636.

[B] Ibid. p, 642.

488. This theory implies that decomposition takes place at both poles upon
distinct portions of fluid, and not at all in the intervening parts. The
latter serve merely as imperfect conductors, which, assuming an electric
state, urge particles electrified more highly at the poles through them in
opposite directions, by virtue of a series of ordinary electrical
attractions and repulsions[A].

[A] Precis Elementaire de Physique, 3me edition, 182