Its comprehension is so important, that I think
we cannot proceed much further in the investigation of the laws of
electricity without a more thorough understanding of its nature; how
otherwise can we hope to comprehend the harmony and even unity of action
which doubtless governs electrical excitement by friction, by chemical
means, by heat, by magnetic influence, by evaporation, and even by the
living being?

1163. In the long-continued course of experimental inquiry in which I have
been engaged, this general result has pressed upon me constantly, namely,
the necessity of admitting two forces, or two forms or directions of a
force (516. 517.), combined with the impossibility of separating these two
forces (or electricities) from each other, either in the phenomena of
statical electricity or those of the current. In association with this, the
impossibility under any circumstances, as yet, of absolutely charging
matter of any kind with one or the other electricity only, dwelt on my
mind, and made me wish and search for a clearer view than any that I was
acquainted with, of the way in which electrical powers and the particles of
matter are related; especially in inductive actions, upon which almost all
others appeared to rest.

1164. When I discovered the general fact that electrolytes refused to yield
their elements to a current when in the solid state, though they gave them
forth freely if in the liquid condition (380. 394. 402.), I thought I saw
an opening to the elucidation of inductive action, and the possible
subjugation of many dissimilar phenomena to one law. For let the
electrolyte be water, a plate of ice being coated with platina foil on its
two surfaces, and these coatings connected with any continued source of the
two electrical powers, the ice will charge like a Leyden arrangement,
presenting a case of common induction, but no current will pass. If the ice
be liquefied, the induction will fall to a certain degree, because a
current can now pass; but its passing is dependent upon a _peculiar
molecular arrangement_ of the particles consistent with the transfer of the
elements of the electrolyte in opposite directions, the degree of discharge
and the quantity of elements evolved being exactly proportioned to each
other (377. 783.). Whether the charging of the metallic coating be effected
by a powerful electrical machine, a strong and large voltaic battery, or a
single pair of plates, makes no difference in the