480 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



electric cell, or the terminals of a battery composed of a 

 number of cells, to two plates of metal placed in the earth, 

 one on either side of the seeds under experiment. Before a 

 conductor of electricity allows the current to pass, the par- 

 ticles of the conductor assume a forced state, in which they 

 tend to resolve themselves into the elements of which they are 

 composed (Faraday, " Eleventh Series of Eesearches," pars. 

 1298 and 1299). For instance, a solution — double cyanide of 

 silver — is taken, and two plates immersed in it. These plates 

 are connected with the poles of a cell ; the current leaves one 

 plate and passes through the liquid to the other plate, and 

 resolves the solution into its two elements as it passes. 

 Throughout the whole of the liquid where the current passes, 

 separations and recombinations of the elements take place, 

 finally leaving cyanogen at one plate and silver at the other. 

 This is a simple electrolytical result. In substituting earth 

 for the above solution, secondary results would follow ("Ex- 

 perimental Eesearches," by Faraday, vol. i., pars. 743, 744, 

 &c). Thus, if the earth surrounding the roots of a plant is 

 resolved into elements and recombined continuously, it might 

 be supposed that the roots of the plant would absorb the 

 elements it required easily, and so the plant would grow more 

 rapidly. 



In one of my first experiments two peas were taken : one 

 was planted in a small iron vessel 4in. in depth and 2iin. in 

 diameter. In this vessel two copper plates, 3in. long by lin. 

 across, were placed perpendicularly, and with 2in. of earth 

 separating them. Each plate was connected with a pole of a 

 cell, made after Cabaret's plan. The current given by this 

 cell was strong enough to deflect the galvanometer-needle 65°. 

 This galvanometer was formed with seven coils of No. 26 

 B.W.G. wire wound round a magnetized needle fin. in length, 

 and suspended in the same way as ordinary compass-needles. 

 This current from the Cabaret cell was not of great intensity. 

 In a second vessel, similar to the first, another pea was placed 

 at an equal depth of lin. The soil was taken from the same 

 spot, and so it was of the same quality and moistness in each 

 case. From time to time they were watered with like quanti- 

 ties of rain-water. The vessels w T ere placed side by side at 

 the same distance from the window, and so exposed to the 

 same temperature, and enjoyed the same amount of light. In 

 fourteen days from the time of setting, the seed which was not 

 under the influence of electricity came up. Forty-eight hours 

 later seed No. 2 appeared. In twenty-one days, however, this 

 plant had grown to an equal size, and in thirty-five days the 

 seed under the influence of electricity had decidedly outgrown 

 the unelectrified one. The cell was then disconnected, and 

 the copper plates in the ground were connected with each 



