[A] See onwards 1711.—­1726.—­Dec. 1838.

1663.  I think the hypothetical question may at present be put thus:  can such considerations as those already generally expressed (1658.) account for the transverse effects of electrical currents? are two such currents in relation to each other merely by the inductive condition of the particles of matter between them, or are they in relation by some higher quality and condition (1654.), which, acting at a distance and not by the intermediate particles, has, like the force of gravity, no relation to them?

1664.  If the latter be the case, then, when electricity is acting upon and in matter, its direct and its transverse action are essentially different in their nature; for the former, if I am correct, will depend upon the contiguous particles, and the latter will not.  As I have said before, this may be so, and I incline to that view at present; but I am desirous of suggesting considerations why it may not, that the question may be thoroughly sifted.

1665.  The transverse power has a character of polarity impressed upon it.  In the simplest forms it appears as attraction or repulsion, according as the currents are in the same or different directions:  in the current and the magnet it takes up the condition of tangential forces; and in magnets and their particles produces poles.  Since the experiments have been made which have persuaded me that the polar forces of electricity, as in induction and electrolytic action (1298. 1343.), show effects at a distance only by means of the polarized contiguous and intervening particles, I have been led to expect that all polar forces act in the same general manner; and the other kinds of phenomena which one can bring to bear upon the subject seem fitted to strengthen that expectation.  Thus in crystallizations the effect is transmitted from particle to particle; and in this manner, in acetic acid or freezing water a crystal a few inches or even a couple of feet in length will form in less than a second, but progressively and by a transmission of power from particle to particle.  And, as far as I remember, no case of polar action, or partaking of polar action, except the one under discussion, can be found which does not act by contiguous particles[A].  It is apparently of the nature of polar forces that such should be the case, for the one force either finds or developed the contrary force near to it, and has, therefore, no occasion to seek for it at a distance.

  [A] I mean by contiguous particles those which are next to each other,
  not that there is no space between them.  See (1616.).