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ON SOME CHEMtCAL AGENCIES OF ELECTRICITY. 



General illus- 

 trations and 

 applications. 



hypothesis before stated, proportional to the chemical affini- 

 ties. I low far cohesion in general may be influenced or oc- 

 casioned by this effect of the difference of the electrical ener- 

 gies of bodies is a curious question for investigation. 



Many applications of the general farts and principles to 

 the processes of chemistry, both in art and in nature, will 

 readily suggest themselves to the philosophical inquirer. 



They offer very easy methods of separating acid and alka- 

 line matter, when they exist in combination, either together 

 or separately, in minerals; and the electrical powers of de- 

 composition may be easily employed in animal and vegetable 

 analysis. 



A piece of muscular fibre, of two inches long and half an 

 inch in diameter, after being electrified by the power oi 150 

 for five days, became perfectly dry and hard, and left on in- 

 cineration no saline matter. Potash, soda, ammonia, lime, 

 and oxide of iron were evolved from it on the negative side, 

 and the three common mineral acids and the phosphoric acid 

 were given out on the positive side. 



A laurel leaf, treated in the same manner, appeared as if it 

 had been exposed to a heat of 500° Or 6*00° Fahrenheit, and 

 was brown and parched. Gieen colouring matter, with resin, 

 alkali, and lime, appeared in the negative vessel : and the 

 positive vessel contained a clear fluid, which had the smell of 

 peach blossoms; and which, when neutralized by potash, 

 gave a blue-green precipitate to solution of sulphate of iron; 

 so that it contained vegetable prussic acid. 



A small plant of mint, in a state of healthy vegetation, was 

 made the medium of connection in the battery, its extremities 

 being in contact with pure water; the process was carried on 

 for 10 minutes: potash and lime were found in the negatively 

 electrified water, and acid matter in the positively electrified 

 water, v\hich occasioned a precipitate in solutions of muriate 

 of barvtes, nitrate of silver, and muriate of lime. This plant 

 recovered alter the process: but a similar one, that had been 

 electrified for four hours with like results, faded and died*. 



The 



* Seeds, I find, when placed in pure water in the positive part of the 

 circuit, geiminate much more rapidly than under common circumstances; 



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