OS SOME CHEMICAL AGENCIES OF ELECTRICITY. 6l 



The farts show, that the electrical powers of decomposition ^ t " f ^ a s 1 ^ l d us " 

 act even upon living vegetable matter; and there are some applications, 

 phenomena which seem to prove, that they operate likewise 

 upon living animal systems. When the fingers, after having 

 been carefully washed with pure water, are brought in con- 

 tact with this fluid in the positive part of the circuit, acid 

 matter is rapidly developed, having the characters of a mix- 

 ture of muriatic, phosphoric, and sulphuric acids: and if a 

 similar trial be made in the negative part, fixed alkaline mat- 

 ter is as quickly exhibited. 



The acid and alkaline tastes produced upon the tongue, in 

 Galvanic experiments, seem to depend upon the decompo- 

 sition of the saline matter contained in the living animal sub- 

 stance, and perhaps in the saliva. 



As acid and alkaline substances are capable of being sepa- 

 rated from their combinations in living systems by electrical 

 powers, there is every reason to believe, that by converse 

 methods they may be likewise introduced into the animal 

 economy, or made to pass through the animal organs: and 

 the same thing may be supposed of metallic oxides; and 

 these ideas ought to lead to some new investigations in medi- 

 cine and physiology. 



It is not improbable, that the electrical decomposition of the 

 neutral salts in different cases may admit of economical uses. 

 ^V'ell burned charcoal and plumbago, or charcoal and iron, 

 might be made the exciting powers; and such an arrangement, 

 if erected upon an extensive scale, neutrosaline matter being 

 employed in every series, would, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve, produce large quantities of acids and alkalies with very- 

 little trouble or expense. 



Ammonia, and acids capable of decomposition, undergo 

 chemical change in the Voltaic circuit only when the)- are iij 

 very concentrated solution, and in other cases are merely car- 

 ried to their particular points of rest. This fact may induce 



but in the negative part of the circuit they do not germinate at all. 

 Without supposing any peculiar effects from the different electricities, 

 which however may operate, the phenomenon may be accounted for from 

 the saturation of the water near the positive metallic surface with oxi gen, 

 and of that near the negative surface with hidrogen, 



US 



