2fi2 M.^HrrYoi^th Application of the [Oct. 



iiHOi*^ oinr i9tr, > Article VI. „( eib aoa ^ 



^Mmd^'¥iei/lf^th€]Applkation of the ElectrO'chemi^^SLf^y 

 \dx\hi(iBi it^Simical Phaiuomemu By M. Ferrc.1, 



Joiiiit, 



jopJl»s»A|^qHje,^ on the ohemicd influence '<^f'WAbi^i^tV*Pvte 

 ^v ' ■ '■ il the facts which tend to prove that it is an esserittaii^nt 

 j^ii .ubinatiouoi' bodies, and many celebrated philosophers 



have endeavoured to show by ingenious speculations that it is 

 ^e only source of chemical action. To prove this, however, "we 

 j^fiould inquire, if, on applying these ideas to known chemical 

 phenomena, the results accord with the data derived from obser- 

 vation. This is the object of the present article, but it is first 

 nr . to recapitulate briefly, the fundamental notions which 



|.i . v)ustitate the electro-chemical theory. 



3,j Aceurdipg to this theory the particles of two elements which 

 ^Miter into chemical ufiion are endowed with opposite electrici- 

 ties, by whose mutual attractions their conxbination is efiiected. 

 |f ,the ifttenaitiea of the two electricities be equal, the coiripound 

 fliB.)ll be neutral; ifuaec^ual, the compound will be acid, if the 

 aegative electricity he in excess, and alkaline if the positive. 

 1^\% admiliing that electrical attractions are the source of che- 

 mical combination, we must suppose, for the union of the parti- 

 cles to he permanent, that they retain their respective electrici- 

 |ies after combination, aud consequently that the electricities 

 oannot quit the particles to unite with, and neutralize each 

 other ; otherwise we cannot imagine, how the particles can quit 

 one combination to eater into another, since, by losing their 

 electrical state in the first, they must also lose, at the same 

 time, all teixleacy to contract a second. 



Action of Acids and Alkalies on Water. 



■ •'As water combines with equal facility with both acids and 

 ijkalie^, bodies which are endowed with opposite electrical 

 properties, and which water, in whatever quantity, never neutral- 

 izes, it is evidently a neutral compound, and consequently can 

 have no inherent tendency to unite with other bodies. Howerer, 

 sirjce, it actually does combine with a great number it must 

 'assume by their action sometimes a positive, and sometimes a 



f' gative state, as otherwise if electricity be the cause of affinity, 

 could i>ot enter into chemical union with them at aM. Sittce 

 r' lis (integrant molecules exhibit no electricity, it can only be 

 aerived from the elementary particles, on whose opposite electri- 

 cities the action of bodies dissolved by the water must be 

 exerted. Thus the negative electricity of acids must attract the 



* Abridijed from the Annales de Chiniie, xxviii. p. J 17, 



