376 Royal Society. 



ferring to more than twenty delineations of corpuscles from various 

 animals, to apply exclusively to those of man. 



3. A paper was also in part read, entitled, " Experiments on the 

 Gas Voltaic Battery, with a view of ascertaining the rationale of its 

 action ; and on its application to Eudiometry." By William Robert 

 Grove, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Experimental Philosophy in 

 the London Institution. 



May 18 — 1. The reading of Prof. Grove's paper, entitled " Expe- 

 riments on the Gas Voltaic Battery, with a view of ascertaining the 

 rationale of its Action," &c, was resumed and concluded. 



The author, referring to a paper published in the Philosophical 

 Magazine for December 1842 [S. 3. vol. xxi. p. 417], giving an ac- 

 count of a voltaic battery of which the active ingredients are gases, 

 and by which the decomposition of water is effected by means of its 

 composition, describes several variations in the form of the appara- 

 tus recorded in that paper. The experiments he has made with this 

 new apparatus, and the details of which occupy the greater part of 

 the present memoir, he conceives establish the conclusion that the 

 phenomena exhibited in the gaseous battery are in strict conformity 

 with Faraday's law of definite electrolysis. They also confirm him 

 in the opinion which he had expressed in his original paper, and 

 which had been controverted by Dr. Schcenbein, in a communica- 

 tion to the Philosophical Magazine for March 1843 [S. 3. vol. xxii. 

 p. 165], as well as by other philosophers, namely, that the oxygen, 

 in that battery, immediately contributes to the production of the 

 voltaic current. Besides employing as the active agents oxygen and 

 hydrogen gases, he extends his experiments to the following combi- 

 nations : namely, 



Oxygen and peroxide of nitrogen ; 



Oxygen and protoxide of nitrogen ; 



Oxygen and olefiant gas ; 



Oxygen and carbonic oxide ; 



Oxygen and chlorine ; 



Chlorine and dilute sulphuric acid ; 



Chlorine and solutions of bromine and iodine in alternate tubes ; 



Chlorine and hydrogen ; 



Hydrogen and carbonic oxide ; 



Chlorine and olefiant gas ; 



Oxygen and binoxide of nitrogen ; 



Oxygen and nitrogen, with solution of sulphate of ammonia; 



Carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, with oxalic acid as an electrolyte; 



Hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphate of ammonia. 



The author concludes, on reviewing the whole of this series of ex- 

 periments, that, with the exception, perhaps, of olefiant gas, which 

 appears to give rise to an extremely feeble current, chlorine and 

 oxygen, on the one hand, and hydrogen and carbonic oxide, on the 

 other, are the only gases which are decidedly capable of electro-syn- 

 thetically combining so as to produce a voltaic current. He thinks 

 that the vapours of bromine and of iodine, were they less soluble, 

 would probably also be found efficient as electro-negative gases. 



