Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 2 (1841).djvu/459

Rh entire force is situated immediately at the surface, which invariably happens when it has entered into equilibrium; and thence, therefore, it happens that the atmosphere exerts no perceptible influence on galvanic phænomena in the closed circuit when this is composed of good conductors, so that the changes produced by the presence of the atmosphere in phænomena of contact-electricity may be neglected in such cases. This conclusion, moreover, receives new support from the circumstance, that in the same cases the contact-electricity only remains during an exceedingly short time in the conductors, and even on that account would only give up a very slight portion to the air, even if it were in immediate contact with it.

Although, from what has been stated, it is placed beyond all doubt that the action of the atmosphere has no perceptible influence on the magnitude of effect of the usual galvanic circuits, it by no means is intended to admit the reverse of the conclusion, viz. that the galvanic conductor exerts no perceptible influence on the electric state of the atmosphere; for mathematical investigation teaches us that the electroscopic action of a body on another has no direct connexion with the quantity of electricity which is carried over from the one to the other.

10. We arrive at last at that position founded on experiment, and which is of the highest importance for the whole of natural philosophy, since it forms the basis of all the phænomena to which we apply the name of galvanic: it may be expressed thus: Different bodies, which touch each other, constantly preserve at the place of contact the same difference between their electroscopic forces by virtue of a contrariety proceeding from their nature, which we are accustomed to designate by the expression electric tension, or difference of bodies. Thus enounced, the position stands, without losing any of its simplicity, in all the generality which belongs to it; for we are nearly always referred to it by every single phænomenon. Moreover, the above expression is adopted in all its generality, either expressly or tacitly, by all philosophers in the explanation of the electroscopic phænomena of the voltaic pile. According to our previously developed ideas respecting the mode in which elements act on one another, we must seek for the source of this phænomenon in the elements directly in contact, and consequently we must allow the abrupt transition to take place from one body to the other in an infinitely small extent of space.