Page:Experimental researches in electricity.djvu/135

Rh it through the agency of a stronger attraction than that of the hydrogen, or otherwise, remains to be decided by more extended experiments. 392. The theory of action which I have given for the original phenomena appears to me quite sufficient to account for all the effects by reference to known properties, and dispenses with the assumption of any new power of matter. I have pursued this subject at some length, as one of great consequence, because I am convinced that the superficial actions of matter, whether between two bodies, or of one piece of the same body, and the actions of particles not directly or strongly in combination, are becoming daily more and more important to our theories of chemical as well as mechanical philosophy. In all ordinary cases of combustion it is evident that an action of the kind considered, occurring upon the surface of the carbon in the fire, and also in the bright part of a flame, must have great influence over the combinations there taking place.

393. The condition of elasticity upon the exterior of the gaseous or vaporous mass already referred to (362, 363) must be connected directly with the action of solid bodies, as nuclei, on vapours, causing condensation upon them in preference to any condensation in the vapours themselves; and in the well-known effect of nuclei on solutions a similar condition may have existence (359), for an analogy in condition exists between the parts of a body in solution, and those of a body in the vaporous or gaseous state. This thought leads us to the consideration of what are the respective conditions at the surfaces of contact of two portions of the same substance at the same temperature, one in the solid or liquid, and the other in the vaporous state; as, for instance, steam and water. It would seem that the particles of vapour next to the particles of liquid are in a different relation to the latter to what they would be with respect to any other liquid or solid substance; as, for instance, mercury or