  We investigate departures of the Onsager relations in the nonlinear regime of
electronic transport through mesoscopic systems. We show that the nonlinear
current--voltage characteristic is not an even function of the magnetic field
due only to the magnetic-field dependence of the screening potential within the
conductor. We illustrate this result for two types of conductors: A quantum
Hall bar with an antidot and a chaotic cavity connected to quantum point
contacts. For the chaotic cavity we obtain through random matrix theory an
asymmetry in the fluctuations of the nonlinear conductance that vanishes
rapidly with the size of the contacts.
