OK SOME CHEMICAL AGENCIES OF ELECTRICITY. gfi 



inches Ion?, was made to connect a positively electrified tube Passage of va. 

 . . „ ,. - , .- , noussubstan- 



contaimng solution oi nitrate ot strontites, and a negatively ces throughat* 



electrified tube containing pure water; the water spon be- tractingche- 



-• • .• \- r 11 r *• i nncal mixtures 



came green, anc^gave indications ot alkaline properties, and by means of 



free nitric acid was rapidly separated in the positive tube, electricity. 

 Alter ten minutes, the alkaline matter wan examined ; it con- 

 sisted of potash and lime, and as yet no strontites had been 

 curried into it: for the precipitate it gave with sulphuric acid 

 readily dissolved in muriatic acid. In haifan hour strontites, 

 however, appeared ; and in four hours it formed a very abun- 

 dant ingredient of the solution. 



A piece of muscular flesh of beef, of about 3 inches in 

 length and haifan inch in thickness, was treated in the same 

 way as the medium of communication between muriate of 

 barytes and distilled water. The first products were soda, 

 ammonia, and lime; and after an hour and a quarter, the 

 barytes was very evident. There was much free oximuriatic 

 acid in the positively electrified tube, but no particle of 

 muriatic acid had passed into the negative tube, either from 

 the muriatic solution or from the muscular fibre. 



VI. Some general Observations on these Phenomena, and on 

 the Mode of Decomposition and Transition. 



It will be a general expression of the facts that have been General oh- 



detailed, relating to the changes and transitions by elec- servatidns <** 

 '. .. . ... i • , i , , . the preceding 



tricity, in common philosophical language, to say, that hi- phenomena. 



drogen, the alkaline substances, the metals, and certain 

 metallic oxides, are attracted by negatively electrified metal- 

 lic surfaces, and repelled by positively electrified metallic 

 surfaces ; and contrariwise, that oxigen and acid substances 

 are attracted by positively electrified metallic surfaces, and 

 repelled by negatively electrined metallic surfaces; and 

 these attractive and repulsive forces are sufficiently ener- 

 getic, to destroy or suspend the usual operation of elective 

 affinity. 



It is very natural to suppose, that the repellent and attrac- 

 tive energies are communicated from one particle to another 

 particle of the same kind, so as to establish a conducting 

 . chain in the fluid; and that the locomotion takes place in 



consequence ; 



