338 ' •'^ *^^^ CHEmcAl. AdKNClES Of ELECTRICITY'; 



Changes pro- aperture in its centre, was placed in a crucible of platina, 

 tridty in watei . "^^^^^ ^^^^ filled as high as the upper surface of the cube 

 with the purified water, the aperture was filled with the 

 same fluid; the crucible was positively electrified by a strong 

 Voltaic power, and a negatively electrified wire introduced 

 into the aperture. 



The water soon gained the property of affecting the tint 

 of turmeric; and fixed alkali and lime were both obtained 

 from it; and this effect took place in repeated experiments : 

 the fixed alkali, however, diminished in quantity every time 5 

 and after eleven processes conducted from two to three 

 hours each, disappeared altogether. The production oC 

 lime-water was uniform. 



I made a solution of 500 grains of this marble in nitric 

 acid; I decomposed the mixture by carbonate of ammonia, 

 and I collected and evaporated the fluid part, and decom«. 

 posed the nitrate of ammonia by heat. About | of a grain 

 of fixed saline matter remained, which had soda for its 

 base. 



It M as possible that the Carrara marble might have bee^ 

 recently exposed to sea-water ; I therefore tried, in the same 

 way, a piece of granular marble, which I had myself broken 

 from a rock on one of the highest of the primitive moun- 

 tains of Donegal. It afforded fixed alkali by the agency of 

 negative electricity. 



A piece of argillaceous schist from Cornwall, treated in 

 the same manner, gave the same result; and serpentine from 

 the Lizard, and grauwacke from North Wales, both afforded 

 8oda. It is probable that there are few stone's, tbat do not 

 contain some minute portions of saline matter, which in 

 many cases may be mechiinically diffused through their sub- 

 stance: and it is not difficult to conceive the possibility of 

 l^is, when we consider that all our common rocks and 

 strata bear evident niarks of having been anciently covered 

 by the sea. 



I was now able to determine distinctly, tlmtthe soda pro- 

 cured in glass tubes came principally from the glass, as I 

 }iad always supposed. 



I used the two cones of gold with the purified water and 

 the amianthus^ the process was conducted a« usual. After 



^ (^uartei" 



