n they sink in my estimation, I shall very shortly put them
into form as another series of these electrical researches.

_Royal Institution.
February 14th, 1838._

FOURTEENTH SERIES.

S 20. _Nature of the electric force or forces._ S 21. _Relation of the
electric and magnetic forces._ S 22. _Note on electrical excitation._

Received June 21, 1838.--Read June 21, 1838.

S 20. _Nature of the electric force or forces._

1667. The theory of induction set forth and illustrated in the three
preceding series of experimental researches does not assume anything new as
to the nature of the electric force or forces, but only as to their
distribution. The effects may depend upon the association of one electric
fluid with the particles of matter, as in the theory of Franklin, Epinus,
Cavendish, and Mossotti; or they may depend upon the association of two
electric fluids, as in the theory of Dufay and Poisson; or they may not
depend upon anything which can properly be called the electric fluid, but
on vibrations or other affections of the matter in which they appear. The
theory is unaffected by such differences in the mode of viewing the nature
of the forces; and though it professes to perform the important office of
stating _how_ the powers are arranged (at least in inductive phenomena), it
does not, as far as I can yet perceive, supply a single experiment which
can be considered as a distinguishing test of the truth of any one of these
various views,

1668. But, to ascertain how the forces are arranged, to trace them in their
various relations to the particles of matter, to determine their general
laws, and also the specific differences which occur under these laws, is as
important as, if not more so than, to know whether the forces reside in a
fluid or not; and with the hope of assisting in this research, I shall
offer some further developments, theoretical and experimental, of the
conditions under which I suppose the particles of matter are placed when
exhibiting inductive phenomena.

1669. The theory assumes that all the _particles_, whether of insulating or
conducting matter, are as wholes conductors.

1670. That not being polar in their normal state, they can become so by the
influence of neighbouring charged particles, the polar state being
developed at the instant, exactly as in an insulated conducting _mass_
consisting of many particles.

1671. That the particles when polarized are in a forced state, an