258 Dr. Schoenbein's Conjectures on the 



tion on the part of the acid upon the inactive iron. It is a 

 well-known fact that fused phosphorus does not become solid 

 at the common temperature if surrounded by a strong solu- 

 tion of potash* ; and according to the experiments which I have 

 made on the subject, phosphorus being in the circumstances 

 mentioned can be cooled down nearly to the freezing point 

 without becoming solid, whereas when covered with water it 

 becomes solid at 104° Fahr. Now if the presence of a solution 

 of potash prevent phosphorus from assuming its solid state, 

 nitric acid by an analogous action may force the particles of 

 inactive iron to remain in their peculiar relative position. 



Having ventured myself so far into the regions of conjec- 

 ture, I may, perhaps, be allowed to continue my course a little 

 longer in that direction. For aught I know, all chemical phi- 

 losophers tacitly acknowledge that the chemical attractive 

 force which a particle of any element exerts with reference 

 to a particle of any other simple body is equal on every one 

 of its sides, provided the distance between the two particles 

 remains the same. Now the peculiar state of iron leads 

 me to suspect, that the particles of that metal have each ol 

 them two chemical poles, at least with regard to oxygen, one 

 pole which attracts the latter body, and another pole which 

 either exerts no attraction for oxygen or which repels it. 

 Supposing each molecule of iron to be possessed of such 

 polar sides, it may be conceived, that a current which passes 

 from the metal into an oxi-electrolytic fluid, into a solution of 

 blue vitriol for instance, directs these particles so as to place 

 their attractive poles (attractive with regard to oxygen) to- 

 wards the axis of the current, or inwards with respect to the 

 surface of the metal, and the repulsive ones towards the elec- 

 trolytic fluid. Such a position of the particles would prevent 

 them from acting either upon the oxygen disengaged at them 

 by electrolytic action or upon the oxygen contained in the 

 oxide of copper. It is a matter of course, according to my 

 hypothesis, that the arrangement of the poles of the mole- 

 cules of the iron would be the reverse of that just spoken of, 

 in case the metal acted the part of the cathode of a current. 

 I have shown that a piece of iron rendered inactive by its 

 having been made the positive electrode within common nitric 

 acid, is turned active again by being made the negative one. 

 I must, however, not omit to state, that in order to make the 

 hypothesis agree with all the facts known respecting the pe- 

 culiar condition of iron, we are obliged to suppose that the 

 polarity of the iron particles exists only with regard to oxy- 



* The presence of the solution of potash, however, is not required to 

 retain the phosphorus in the liquid state. See Phil. Mag. and Annals, 

 N.S., vol. jii. [>, 144.— -Edit. 



