position, given in the third and fifth parts of these Researches. The expressions I would now alter are those which concern the independence of the evolved elements in relation to the poles or electrodes, and the reference of their evolution to powers entirely internal (260, 273, 397). The present paper fully shows my present views; and I would refer to paragraphs 626, 639, 645, 652, 653, 682, 698, 743, 767, etc., as stating what they are. I hope this note will be considered as sufficient in the way of correction at present; for I would rather defer revising the whole theory of electro-chemical decomposition until I can obtain clearer views of the way in which the power under consideration can appear at one time as associated with particles giving them their chemical attraction, and at another as free electricity (229, 692).—M. F.
March 31, 1834.
VII[1]
§9. ON THE SOURCE OF POWER IN THE VOLTAIC PILE. ¶ i. EXCITING ELECTROLYTES, ETC., BEING CONDUCTORS OF THERMO AND FEEBLE CURRENTS. ¶ ii. INACTIVE CONDUCTING CIRCLES CONTAINING AN ELECTROLYTIC FLUID. ¶ iii. ACTIVE CIRCLES EXCITED BY SOLUTION OF SULPHURET OF POTASSIUM, ETC.
§9. On the Source of Power in the Voltaic Pile
784. What is the source of power in a voltaic pile? This question is at present of the utmost importance in the theory and to the development of electrical science. The opinions held respecting it are various; but by far the most important are the two which respectively find the source of power in contact, and in chemical force. The question between them touches the first principles of electrical action; for the opinions are in such contrast, that two men respectively adopting them are thenceforward constrained to differ, in every point, respecting the probable and intimate nature of the agent or force on which all the phenomena of the voltaic pile depend.
785. The theory of contact is the theory of Volta, the great discoverer of the voltaic pile itself, and it has been sustained since his day by a host of philosophers, amongst whom, in
- ↑ Sixteenth Series, original edition, vol. ii. p. 18.
