1083.), I did
succeed in obtaining the igniting effect for making contact in the same
manner, though by no means to the same degree, as with the electro-magnet
(1104).

1106. We may also consider and estimate the effect on _making contact_, by
transferring the force of induction from the wire carrying the original
current to a lateral wire, as in the cases described (1090.); and we then
are sure, both by the chemical and galvanometrical results (1091.), that
the forces upon making and breaking contact, like action and reaction, are
equal in their strength but contrary in their direction. If, therefore, the
effect on making contact resolves itself into a mere retardation of the
current at the first moment of its existence, it must be, in its degree,
equivalent to the high exaltation of that same current at the moment
contact is broken.

1107. Thus the case, under the circumstances, is, that the intensity and
quantity of electricity moving in a current are smaller when the current
commences or is increased, and greater when it diminishes or ceases, than
they would be if the inductive action occurring at these moments did not
take place; or than they are in the original current wire if the inductive
action be transferred from that wire to a collateral one (1090.).

1108. From the facility of transference to neighbouring wires, and from the
effects generally, the inductive forces appear to be lateral, i.e. exerted
in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the originating and
produced currents: and they also appear to be accurately represented by the
magnetic curves, and closely related to, if not identical with, magnetic
forces.

1109. There can be no doubt that the current in one part of a wire can act
by induction upon other parts of the _same_ wire which are lateral to the
first, i.e. in the same vertical section (74.), or in the parts which are
more or less oblique to it (1112.), just as it can act in producing a
current in a neighbouring wire or in a neighbouring coil of the same wire.
It is this which gives the appearance of the current acting upon itself:
but all the experiments and all analogy tend to show that the elements (if
I may so say) of the currents do not act upon themselves, and so cause the
effect in question, but produce it by exciting currents in conducting
matter which is lateral to them.

1110. It is possible that some of the expressions I have used may seem to
imply, that the inductive ac