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37

A and N are equal, and remarks that this is no other than the deter- mination of g in a spheroid of revolution having its axes equal to

k and k «2-9414 = k x1'7150.

In the other extreme case, when r? is infinitely great, g is zero,

From this investigation the conclusion is arrived at, that for every given value of 7'9 there is only one value of p, and only one ellip- soid; and that to every such ellipsoid there is an appropriate value of g: and, further, that for every p0§ible Value of 9 there will be only one value of 19, and consequently only one ellipsoid susceptible of an equilibrium.

Also the reading of a paper, entitled, " Experimental Researches in Electricity.” Eleventh series. By M. Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., F ullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, was commenced.

December 21, 1837.

FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V ice—President and Treasurer, in the Chair.

The reading of Mr. Faraday’s eleventh series of Experimental Re- searches in Electricity was resumed, but not concluded.

The Society then adjourned over the Christmas vacation to meet again on the 11th of January next.

January 11, 1838. JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair.

The ballot for Bryan Donkin, Esq., was postponed in consequence. of the number of Fellows required by the Statutes not being present.

The reading of a paper, entitled “ Experimental Researches in Electricity,” Eleventh Series, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, &c., was resumed and concluded.

The object of this paper is to establish two general principles re- lating to the theory of electricity, which appear to be of great im- portance; first, that induction is in all cases the result of the actions of contiguous particles; and secondly, that different insulators have different inductive capacities.

The class of phaenomena usually arranged under the head of in- duction are reducible to a geneml fact, the existence of which We may recognise in all electrical phaenomena whatsoever; and they involve the operation of aprinciple having all the characters of a first, essen— tial and fundamental law. The discovery which he had already made of the law by which electrolytes refuse to yield their elements to a current when in the solid state, though they give them forth freely when liquid, suggested to the author the extension of analogous ex- planations with regard to inductive action, and the possible reduction