314* Prof. Schoenbein on the Cu7rent Electricity 



deed, a pile containing a dozen of active wires readily decom- 

 poses, not only iodide of potassium, but also any other electro- 

 lyte. Now, if there be any means of demonstrating, as it 

 were ad oculos, the intimate connection which exists be-» 

 tween the chemical action of a pile and its electro-chemical 

 power, i. e. current, my iron-platina arrangement, I think, 

 must be considered as such ; and on this account alone, if on 

 no other, it may, perhaps, be recommended to the attention 

 of scientific men. If the views of Volta on the origin of 

 current electricity were true, it is obvious that the pile in 

 question ought to be, comparatively speaking, a very power- 

 ful arrangement, iron being what is called an eminently elec- 

 tro-positive metal, platina an electro-negative one, and nitrio 

 acid one of the very best conductors we know of. 



As what I term a current of tendency is no doubt in some 

 cases nothing but that electrical state which the voltaists con- 

 sider to be the effect of their " force electro-motive," or of 

 contact, it appears to me, that from some of the facts above 

 stated a specific and most important conclusion regarding the 

 theory of the pile can be drawn. Even if we grant to the 

 voltaists our current of tendency to be the effect of mere con- 

 tact, the facts alluded to prove that such a current does not 

 possess a sensible degree of electrolyzing power, consequently 

 that the chemical effects of the common voltaic arrangements 

 have nothing to do with current electricity excited by con- 

 tact. The important discovery made by Mr. Faraday with 

 regard to the connection which exists between the magnitude 

 of the electrolyzing power of a pile and the quantity of metal 

 oxidized within the voltaic circle, beautifully agrees with the 

 results I have obtained from the experiments above stated. 

 I would not have said so much upon the relation of che- 

 mical action and current electricity to one another, this sub- 

 ject having been so beautifully and satisfactorily cleared up 

 by the skill and sagacity of Mr. Faraday ; but as I under- 

 stand that the truth of the chemical principle of galvanism 

 will, before long, be seriously denied by a German philoso- 

 pher, and that facts will be brought forward which are said 

 to be altogether irreconcilable to the chemical theory and 

 quite in favour of Volta's hypothesis, I thought the prece- 

 ding remarks not superfluous. I cannot deny my being very 

 curious to learn the novel facts alluded to, for certainly' they ^ 

 must be of quite an extraordinary nature ; but of whatever kind 

 they may be, I am almost sure the foundation of the chemical 

 system will not be shaken by them. 



Before concluding my letter, I must not omit to say some 

 words about the decomposition which peroxide of lead un- 



