HI Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



excess of hydrogen, sometimes of oxygen. The English author indi- 

 cates the laws of these decompositions, which appear to M. Masson 

 to be explained by some phenomena which he regards as incontest- 

 able, although some physicists hesitate about admitting them. He 

 thinks that — 



1 . Platinum, and probably all incandescent bodies, have the power 

 of decomposing liquids as they decompose gases*. 



2. Gases may be polarized as well as solids and fluids f. 



3. Gases as well as solids and fluids conduct electricity, and 

 behave like the latter in all electrical actions. 



4. Conductors of equal section placed in the same circuit become 

 more heated in proportion as they are bad conductors. 



5. When a negative current passes from a good conductor to a 

 bad one, the point of junction becomes much more heated than if 

 the current passed from the bad conductor to the good. 



6. The electric light or spark is caused by the incandescence of 

 the medium through which it passes. 



The author shows that two modes of electrical decomposition 

 must be admitted ; one which he calls polar, in which the elements 

 of the body submitted to electrolyzation are transported to the two 

 poles, and a second which he terms calorific decomposition. This 

 acts principally in the decomposition of gases and liquids ; it is very 

 active at the incandescent poles of an electric current, or at each 

 point of a spark. 



The principal object of his experiments has been to isolate these 

 two decompositions. 



He first decomposed water with two Wollas ton's conductors, and 

 found at each pole a detonating mixture, which was more abundant 

 at the negative, or more incandescent pole, than at the positive pole. 

 There was always an excess of hydrogen at the negative, and of 

 oxygen at the positive pole. 



The oxyhydrogen mixture is produced by the calorific decompo- 

 sition ; the excess of the gases is attributed to polar decomposition. 

 This is proved by the following experiments. 



By taking as poles one pointed conductor, whilst the other is 

 terminated by a ball of platinum of 1 to 2 millimetres in diameter, 

 the luminous point becomes the centre of an abundant decomposition. 

 Scarcely any gas is evolved on the ball. Mr. Grove has observed 

 the same fact in employing a plate. The gas disengaged by the 

 point is a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, with an excess of one 

 or the other, according as it is positive or negative ; the ball gives 

 pure oxygen or hydrogen gas according to its polar position. 



If the point be kept out of the liquid and in the air so as to obtain 

 a series of sparks, the ball plunged in the liquid, which, in these 

 experiments, was water acidulated with phosphoric acid, scarcely 

 produces any decomposition, and furnishes oxygen or hydrogen 

 according as it is positive or negative. In this case the decompo- 

 sition is polar and very feeble. In these experiments the decompo- 

 sition of the glass forming the extremity of the conducting tube 

 placed in the air was ascertained. 



* Grove, Bakerian Lecture. f Faraday, Researches on Electricity. 



