Remarkable Conclusion in relation to Intensity, 279 



the second is at present distinctive of the electrolytes. It is, 

 however, just possible that it may hereafter be extended to 

 the metals; for their power of conducting without decomposi- 

 tion may, perhaps justly, be ascribed to their requiring a very 

 high electrolytic intensity for their decomposition. 



987J. The establishment of a certain electrolytic intensity 

 being necessary before decomposition can be effected, is of 

 great importance in all those considerations which arise re- 

 garding the probable effects of weak currents, such for in- 

 stance as those produced by natural thermo-electricity, or na- 

 tural voltaic arrangements. For to produce an effect of de- 

 composition or of combination, a current must not only exist, 

 but have a certain intensity before it can overcome the qui- 

 escent affinities opposed to it, otherwise it will be conducted, 

 producing no permanent effects. On the other hand, the 

 principles are also now evident by which an opposing action 

 can be so weakened by the juxtaposition of bodies not having 

 quite affinity enough to cause direct action between them 

 (913.), that a very weak current shall be able to raise the 

 sum of actions sufficiently high, and cause chemical changes 

 to occur. 



988. In concluding this division on the intensity necessary 

 for electrolyzation^ I cannot resist pointing out the following 

 remarkable conclusion in relation to intensity generally. It 

 would appear that when a voltaic current is produced, having 

 a certain intensity, dependent upon the strength of the che- 

 mical affinities by which that current is excited (916.), it can 

 decompose a particular electrolyte without relation to the 

 quantity of electricity passed, the intensity deciding whether 

 the electrolyte shall give way or not. If that conclusion be 

 confirmed, then we may arrange circumstances so that the 

 same quantity of electricity may pass in the same time, in at the 

 same surface, into the same decomposing body in the same state, 

 and yet differ in intensity, decomposing in one case and in the 

 other not. For taking a source of too low an intensity to de- 

 compose, and ascertaining the quantity passed in a given time, 

 it is easy to take another source having a sufficient intensity, 

 and reducing the quantity of electricity from it by the inter- 

 vention of bad conductors to the same proportion as the former 

 current, and then all the conditions will be fulfilled to pro- 

 duce the result described. 



[To be continued.] 



