I do not see my way any better as to the other terms, for I do not catch your objection to _current_, which appears to me to be capable of jogging on very well from _cathode_ to _anode_, or vice versa. As for positive and negative, I do not see why _cathodic_ and _anodic_ should not be used, if they will do the service you want of them. I expect to be in London at the end of the month, and could probably see you for half an hour on the 1st of November, say at 10, 11, or 12. But in the mean time I shall be glad to hear from you whether you can make anything of such conundrums as I have mentioned, and am always yours very truly, W. WHEWELL. M. FARADAY Esq^{re.} Royal Institution. [Sidenote: LATERAL ACTIONS OF CURRENT.] The concluding part of the thirteenth memoir, in which these new terms are used, is an exceedingly striking speculation on the lateral or transverse effects of the current. In calling special attention to them, he says: “I refer of course to the magnetic action and its relations; but though this is the only recognised lateral action of the current, there is great reason for believing that others exist and would by their discovery reward a close search for them.” He seems to have had an instinctive perception of something that eluded his grasp. Not until after Maxwell had given mathematical form to Faraday’s own suggestions was this vision to be realised. He is dimly aware that there appears to be a lateral tension or repulsion possessed by the lines of electric inductive action; and onward runs his thought in free speculation:-- When current or discharge occurs between two bodies, previously under inductrical relations to each other, the lines of inductive force will weaken and fade away, and, as their lateral repulsive tension diminishes, will contract and ultimately disappear in the line of discharge. May not this be an effect identical with the attractions of similar currents? _i.e._ may not the passage of static electricity into current electricity, and that of the lateral tension of the lines of the inductive force into the lateral attraction of lines of similar discharge, have the same relation and dependences, and run parallel to each other?