330 ^^ SOME CHEMICAL AGENCIES OF ELECTRICITX. 



Changes pro- the receiver, and filled it with hidrogen gas from a convex 

 tricitr in water. ^^^^^ airh older ; I made a second exhaustion, and again in,. 

 troduced hidrogen that had been carefully prepared. Thp 

 process was conducted for 24 hours, and at the end of thi^" 

 time neither of the portions of the water altered in the 

 slightest degree the tint of litmus. 



It seems eyident then, that water chemically pure is de- 

 composed by electricity into gaseous matter alone, into ox- 

 igen and hidrogen. 



The cause of its decomposition, and of the other de- 

 compositions which h^ve h^en mentioned, will be hereafter 

 discussed. 



III. On the Agencies of Electricity in th(? Decont^pontig^, 

 of various Compounds. 



Action of elec- The experiments th^t have been detailed on the production 



liicity m de- ^ alkali from firlass, and on the decomposition of variouk 

 composingconr . . ^ 



pounds. saline eo^ipounds contained in animal and vegetable sub*. 



stances, offered some curious objects of inquiry. 



It was evident, tha't in all changes in which acid and aK 

 Valine matter had been present, the acid matter collected in 

 the water round the positively electrified metallic surface; 

 and the alkaline matter round the negatively electrified me- 

 tallic surface; and thisi principle of action appeared imme- 

 diately related to one of the first phaenomena observed iii 

 the Voltaic pile, the decomposition of the muriate of soda 

 attached to the pasteboard ; and io many facts which hav^ 

 been since observed on the separation of the constituent 

 parts of neutrosaline and metallic solutions, particularly 

 those detailed by M. M. Hisiuger and Berzelius *. 



The first experiments that I made immediately with re- 

 spect to this subject were on the decomposition of solid 

 bodies, insoluble, or diflicultly soluble in water. From the 

 eifFectsof the electrical agency on glass, I expected that 

 Varibu's earthy compounds Mould undergo change nndor 

 similar circumstances; and the results 6f the trials wef^ 

 i|ecide(J and satisfactory. 



'■^ Annales de Clumie, Tom. LI, p. 167. 



■"''■ ""'• ' ' two. 



