FARADAY, MICHAEL. - ANIMAL ELECTRICITY.

Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Fifteenth Series. § 23. Notice of the character and direction of the electric force of the Gymnotus. (Sections 1749-1795). Received November 15, - Read December 6, 1838.

(London, Richard and John E. Taylor, 1839). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1839 - Part I. Pp. 1-12., 1 textillustr. Some discolouring to the 2 first leaves.

First appearance of this paper in which Faraday finds, by experimenting with a species of Gymnotus (a group of electric fishes, one was send to him by Humboldt), proves that its electricity is of the same nature as all other kinds of electricity "The skock, in very varied circumstances of position, was procured: the galvanonmets affected, magnets were made, a wire was heated, polar chemical decomposition was effected, and the spark obtained."(Abstract).

From 1831 to 1852 Michael Faraday published his "Experimental Researches in Electricity" in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These papers contain not only an impressive series of experimental discoveries, but also a collection of heterodox theoretical concepts on the nature of these phenomena expressed in terms of lines of forces and fields. He published 30 papers in all under this general title.They represents Faraday's most importent work, are classics in both chemistry and physics and are the experimental foundations for Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light, using Faraday's concepts of lines of force or tubes of magnetic and electrical forces. His many experiments on the effects of electricity and magnetism presented in these papers lead to the fundamental discoveries of 'induced electricity' (the Farday current), the electronic state of matter, the identity of electricity from different sources, equivalents in electro-chemical decomposition, electrostatic induction, hydro-electricity, diamagnetism, relation of gravity to electricity, atmospheric magnetism and many other.

"Among experimental philosophers Faraday holds by universal consent the foremost place. The memoirs in which his discoveries are enshrined will never ceaseto be read with admiration and delight; and future generations will preserve with an affection not less enduring the personal records and familiar letters, which recall the memory of his humble and unselfish spirit."(Edmund Whittaker in A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity).

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