16G KLECTRO-CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES. 



one or both be of effecting an union between bodies, both of which are solid, 

 can scarcely S And again, since each polarized particle must have an electric 

 combine. atmosphere, and as this atmosphere is the predisposing cause of 



cases have' ° combination, as we have seen, it follows, that the particles can- 

 less electric ac- not act but at certain distances, proportioned to the intensity of 



toITrcmotc * their P olaritv > and hence lt is that bodies, which have affinity 

 for each other, always combine nearly on the instant when 

 mixed in the liquid state, but less easily in the gaseous state, 

 and the union ceases to be possible under a certain degree 

 of dilatation of the gasses, as we know by the experiments of 

 Grothuss, that .a mixture of oxigen and hidrogen in due 

 proportions, when rarefied to a certain degree, cannot be set on 

 fire at any temperature whatever. 

 The pile re- The chemical action effected by the discharge of the pile, 

 atoms to their consists in the particles in a combination being re-polarized, 

 former state. j n 3 combination of particles having the same unipolarity, the 

 pile merely restores, by the decomposition, the general polarity, 

 because their specific unipolarity was not changed by their 

 union ; but in combinations of opposite unipolarity, it likewise 

 restores the specific unipolarity of the elements. May we 

 conclude, that, in the first case, the general re-polarization takes 

 place in the same manner as the loadstone gives magnetism to 

 a small particle of steel, and that in the second, the pile con- 

 tributes, by its own specific energies, to restore the predomina- 

 ting poles* 



[Here the annotation concludes. — W. N.] 

 Classification In my essay upon chemical nomenclature, I have divided 

 to theh^dispo- bocUes into electro-positive and electro-negative, the first of 

 sition to be these denominations being appropriated to bodies which, by the 

 round^ie action of the pile, are collected round the positive pole, and 

 poles of the vice versa, I have noticed the probability, that these names 

 pile. Electro- had been employed in the opposite sense -, and my subsequent 



* In this, beautiful generalization of facts, which promises to become 

 more conclusive the more it shall be studied, this last paragraph seems 

 rather obscure. The poles of the voltaic pile appear to present, to the 

 principles of a compound, points of attraction more powerful than 

 that which maintained the combination ; and they transmit the 

 electric energy from particle to particle, so as to complete the total de- 

 composition, But we do not yet appear to possess analogies to carry us 

 much farther.— N. 



reflec- 



