M. Matteucci on the Electricity of Flame. 403 



which you obtained from the flame of alcohol or of hydrogen is 

 of the same nature as that which is obtained if the two platinum 

 wires are placed in water after having been in contact, or while 

 in contact, the one with hydrogen, the other with oxygen gas : 

 the current in the former case is feebler, owing to the bad con- 

 ducting power of flame. We should thus be led to suppose, — 

 1st, that the action between the platinum and the gases takes 

 place even at a very high temperature, which supposition is in 

 accordance with experiment ; 2nd, that vapour, like water in a 

 liquid state, is decomposed by the electrical current, which 

 remains to be proved. 



I must not close this letter without observing that I am not, 

 nor has there been time for me as yet to be, acquainted with the 

 works of the German savants Bufi" and Hankel, of which you 

 speak. Should it appear to you that these few observations ofi*er 

 any interest, I should feel greatly obliged by your communica- 

 ting them, as a proof of my gratitude, to the Editors of the Phi- 

 losophical Magazine. 



Ever yours, 



Pise, September 26, 1854. C. Matteucci. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 



In communicating the above interesting experiments, I am 

 tempted to add a few words of comment ; for though I do not 

 differ much from the interpretation of the flame-current given 

 by my friend M. Matteucci,, it interests me in a different point 

 of view. This I can best explain by stating a conviction I very 

 early acquired from the chemical theory of Voltaism, and which 

 has led to many of the experimental results that I have from 

 time to time communicated to the Philosophical Magazine. It 

 is, that every chemical synthetic action may, by a proper dispo- 

 sition of the constituents, be made to produce a voltaic current. 



This proposition may probably appear to many a direct and 

 necessary consequence of the chemical theory, but I do not 

 recollect to have seen it broadly stated. Thus the dissolution 

 of gold by aqua regia I showed might produce a voltaic current. 

 The gas battery was, in my mind, a similar deduction, and was 

 arrived at by considering the chemical action in the Dobereiner 

 lamp, and not by the experiments of M. Pouillet and M. Mat- 

 teucci, with which I was unacquainted at the time of my first 

 experiments, though doubtless those would have been an equally 

 ready step to the result. The production of a voltaic current 

 from phosphorus and iodine, solid non-conductors, the nitric 

 acid battery, &c., were derivatives of the same thought. 

 . It has often occurred to me, that if, instead of using zinc and 



