Voltaic Batteries, Sfc. 63 



weights of each as 1 6 to 1 ; but there are two volumes of hy- 

 drogen and one of oxygen, so that the bulk of the equal weight 

 of hydrogen, being multiplied by its number of combining 

 volumes, gives 16 x 2 = 32, and the oxygen gives 1 x 1 =1, 

 which is precisely the relation between the areas of the two 

 electrodes which is found to obtain when the question is sub- 

 mitted to experiment. 



32. And it also follows, that if these relations have been 

 determined for the superficies of any such arrangement, they 

 have been determined likewise for every other geometrical re- 

 lation peculiar to it ; and again, that if they have been ascer- 

 tained for the electrodes, and the bodies determined to the 

 electrodes, they have also been determined for the compound 

 from which these bodies have been derived, or, in other words, 

 for the electrolyte — so that the expressions of the law just 

 stated may be varied so as to include any or all of these re- 

 lations. 



33. The expressions of this law as just stated are framed in 

 accordance with the present theoretical notions of equivalent 

 numbers, volumes, &c., but it is easy to foresee how investi- 

 gations of the kind now spoken of, when they shall come to 

 be conducted with sufficient nicety, may be used either to con- 

 firm or modify the theories at present entertained on some 

 of those points. 



34-. This general law will not include all the phaenomena 

 attendant upon the operations now referred to ; but a series 

 of subordinate laws will be needed to express what have already 

 been distinguished as primary and secondary effects : — but not 

 further to anticipate these results, the preceding remarks will 

 perhaps sufficiently indicate the precise nature of the subject 

 with which the third part of this paper is intended to be 

 occupied. 



35. It appears, therefore, that the definite character of vol- 

 taic action may be proved to extend into other classes of its 

 phaenomena, besides that in which its discoverer first detected 

 it; and it seems unquestionable that the same principle prevails 

 throughout all its operations, and that in the end every class 

 of its phaenomena will be found to be governed by a law pecu- 

 liar to itself. The general law of Faraday, and that just 

 stated, are in perfect harmony with the previously well-known 

 physical and chemical properties of the bodies engaged in the 

 phsenomena from which they have been deduced ; and these 

 two laws themselves will undoubtedly be found in the end 

 equally to harmonize with each other. It seems not to be an 

 unwarranted probability that if the laws peculiar to every such 

 class of voltaic action were accurately determined, we should 



