[B] Annales de Chimie, lviii. 60. and lxiii, 20.

1348.  Electrolytic discharge depends, of necessity, upon the non-conduction of the dielectric as a whole, and there are two steps or acts in the process:  first a polarization of the molecules of the substance and then a lowering of the forces by the separation, advance in opposite directions, and recombination of the elements of the molecules, these being, as it were, the halves of the originally polarized conductors or particles.

1349.  These views of the decomposition of electrolytes and the consequent effect of discharge, which, as to the particular case, are the same with those of Grotthuss (481.) and Davy (482.), though they differ from those of Biot (487.), De la Rive (490.), and others, seem to me to be fully in accordance not merely with the theory I have given of induction generally (1165.), but with all the known facts of common induction, conduction, and electrolytic discharge; and in that respect help to confirm in my mind the truth of the theory set forth.  The new mode of discharge which electrolyzation presents must surely be an evidence of the action of contiguous particles; and as this appears to depend directly upon a previous inductive state, which is the same with common induction, it greatly strengthens the argument which refers induction in all cases to an action of contiguous particles also (1295, &c.).

1350.  As an illustration of the condition of the polarized particles in a dielectric under induction, I may describe an experiment.  Put into a glass vessel some clear rectified oil of turpentine, and introduce two wires passing through glass tubes where they coincide with the surface of the fluid, and terminating either in balls or points.  Cut some very clean dry white silk into small particles, and put these also into the liquid:  then electrify one of the wires by an ordinary machine and discharge by the other.  The silk will immediately gather from all parts of the liquid, and form a band of particles reaching from wire to wire, and if touched by a glass rod will show considerable tenacity; yet the moment the supply of electricity ceases, the band will fall away and disappear by the dispersion of its parts.  The conduction by the silk is in this case very small; and after the best examination I could give to the effects, the impression on my mind is, that the adhesion of the whole is due to the polarity which each filament acquires, exactly as the particles of iron between the poles of a horse-shoe magnet are held together in one mass by a similar disposition of forces.  The particles of silk therefore represent to me the condition of the molecules of the dielectric itself, which I assume to be polar, just as that of the silk is.  In all cases of conductive discharge the contiguous polarized particles of the body are able to effect a neutralization of their forces with greater or less facility, as the silk does also in a very slight degree.  Further we are not able to carry the parallel, except in imagination; but if we could divide each particle of silk into two halves, and let each half travel until it met and united with the next half in an opposite state, it would then exert its carrying power (1347.), and so far represent electrolytic discharge.