nd, in fact, by making variations in the form of the arrangement,
the force upon any single particle may be made to increase, or diminish, or
remain constant, whilst the distance between the particle and the pole
shall remain the same; or the force may be made to increase, or diminish,
or remain constant, either as the distance increases or as it diminishes.

504. From numerous experiments, I am led to believe the following general
expression to be correct; but I purpose examining it much further, and
would therefore wish not to be considered at present as pledged to its
accuracy. The _sum of chemical decomposition is constant_ for any section
taken across a decomposing conductor, uniform in its nature, at whatever
distance the poles may be from each other or from the section; or however
that section may intersect the currents, whether directly across them, or
so oblique as to reach almost from pole to pole, or whether it be plane, or
curved, or irregular in the utmost degree; provided the current of
electricity be retained constant in quantity (377.), and that the section
passes through every part of the current through the decomposing conductor.

505. I have reason to believe that the statement might be made still more
general, and expressed thus: That _for a constant quantity of electricity,
whatever the decomposing conductor may be, whether water, saline solutions,
acids, fused bodies, &c., the amount of electro-chemical action is also a
constant quantity, i.e. would always be equivalent to a standard chemical
effect founded upon ordinary chemical affinity_. I have this investigation
in hand, with several others, and shall be prepared to give it in the next
series but one of these Researches.

506. Many other arguments might be adduced against the hypotheses of the
attraction of the poles being the cause of electro-chemical decomposition;
but I would rather pass on to the view I have thought more consistent with
facts, with this single remark; that if decomposition by the voltaic
battery depended upon the attraction of the poles, or the parts about them,
being stronger than the mutual attraction of the particles separated, it
would follow that the weakest _electrical_ attraction was stronger than, if
not the strongest, yet very strong _chemical_ attraction, namely, such as
exists between oxygen and hydrogen, potassium and oxygen, chlorine and
sodium, acid and alkali, &c., a consequence which, although perhaps not
im