852. The theory of definite electrolytical or electro-chemical action appears to me to touch immediately upon the _absolute quantity_ of electricity or electric power belonging to different bodies. It is impossible, perhaps, to speak on this point without committing oneself beyond what present facts will sustain; and yet it is equally impossible, and perhaps would be impolitic, not to reason upon the subject. Although we know nothing of what an atom is, yet we cannot resist forming some idea of a small particle, which represents it to the mind; and though we are in equal, if not greater, ignorance of electricity, so as to be unable to say whether it is a particular matter or matters, or mere motion of ordinary matter, or some third kind of power or agent, yet there is an immensity of facts which justify us in believing that the atoms of matter are in some way endowed or associated with electrical powers, to which they owe their most striking qualities, and amongst them their mutual chemical affinity. As soon as we perceive, through the teaching of Dalton, that chemical powers are, however varied the circumstances in which they are exerted, definite for each body, we learn to estimate the relative degree of force which resides in such bodies: and when upon that knowledge comes the fact, that the electricity, which we appear to be capable of loosening from its habitation for a while, and conveying from place to place, _whilst it retains its chemical force_, can be measured out, and being so measured is found to be _as definite in its action_ as any of _those portions_ which, remaining associated with the particles of matter, give them their _chemical relation_; we seem to have found the link which connects the proportion of that we have evolved to the proportion of that belonging to the particles in their natural state.