ON CHEMICAL AFFINITY. fj 



only when the polish of their surface is preserve<l ; the cop* 



^r and ziuc plutes pf a galvanic battery are always very 



much tornished. a. The j^alranic apparatus can only be 



excited by a decomposable fluid, and this fluid is always r 



decomposed, when the upp'<*'tttus is excited. From thcs^ 



confiidevatiqns, I am iucliued to conclude, that the princi^ 



pies, on which decomposable fluids act in producing their 



peculiar elfe6^8 on the galvanic battery, li^ve u.ot y^t be.ea 



accuriiteiy determined, 5->fH iij,- ^m^-tta -m* t3 •*•?• 



It will be a general, and I think perfectly correct statf* 



ment of tive facts, reUitive to the decomposition of bodies by The difference 



ifalvanisai, to sa\, tliat hidroi>:<in, the alkali^, the metals, ?'^ ^'^^'; " <»^' 

 1 ,,• • 1 . ^■ ^ r ^ ■ Jng to deconv- 



and certain metalhc oxides are, immediately utter their se- poition haT- 



partition by galvanism frpi?^ oxigep, and from acids, found '"S ^^^^ 



qt the negative wire; and that oxigen and acids, after their 



sepfiration from the first claw of snbgtanccis, appear at the 



positive wire. I trust, however, that the experiments and 



r^easoAiings, which I have adduced, a»e sufficient to prove> 



th4t th<i partic«es of dissimilar kinds of matter do not e^iist 



in ditJetent electrical S'tateiS while in composition, but th^l 



they acquire a difference of, electrical state in the act of 



deconxposition : this difference of electrical atate is, there- 



fhre, not the cause, but the effect of decomposition. 



It yet remains to be determined, on wiiiit. principle the 

 <4)posite wires of a galvanic battery act, . when, their aclioa* How is decom- 

 oGcasions the sep.iration of the constituents of compound ^^^"^^"J^^'' 

 bodiiei^. To do this, I by uo means conceive it necessary tO'ism? 

 eater i'nio an investigation of the remote cause of electrical 

 pfaeK^mena; on the contrary, I think the question may be 

 decided by a reference to well known and undoubted facts. 



If two conductinj^ b/)dies, in different electrical states,: 

 be brought near to each other, the djfferenoe will h«^y * ''spuUve 

 destroyed; and if the difference between the <^^e<^'<^'ical gou* to that of 

 states of the conducting bodies be considerable, while the caloric. 

 operation is going on by which it is removed, the con?* 

 ducting bodies will frequently be fused. Thi» happens not 

 only to bodies easily fused, but also to very refractory sub- 

 stances; as the alkalis, thp eartha, the metals. 'Ihe fact di- 

 vested of hU hypothesis is, that the action* of differently 

 eWctrified conductors •ccasions a repulsive force to be ex^i^ 



erte4 



