On the ActioJi of Voltaic Electricity on Iodic Acid, 93 



with acetate of albumen, which was connected in a similar 

 manner to the negative side of the battery of 30 pairs* {16.). 

 In an hour a considerable cloud of albumen had appeared in 

 the negative cup; the fluid in the positive was, of course, acid : 

 to this an excess of caustic soda was added, and the whole 

 evaporated to dryness: on the addition of sulphuric acid to 

 the dry residue, an odour of acetic acid was evolved. This 

 proves, I conceive, that albumen may play the part of an 

 electro-negative body ; for whatever objections may be urged 

 against my deductions from this experiment, no one, 1 pre- 

 sume, would imagine acetic acid to be conveyed to the posi- 

 tive cup, unless it was combined as an anio?t with some basic 

 body, which in this case could be nothing but albumen. I must 

 confess, however, that albumen forms much more perfect com- 

 binations with bases than with acids, and appears to be more 

 allied to the electro-negative than to the electro-positive bodies, 

 in this respect bearing to the other products of organization 

 a similar relation to that of silica to the inorganic bodies. 

 44, Seymour-street, Euston-square. 



XX. On the Action of Voltaic Electricity on Iodic Acid, By 

 Arthur Connell, Esq.^ F.R.S.E. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal, 



Gentlemen, 

 TN your Number for May 1836, (vol. viii. p. 401) I observe 

 ^ a passage in a paper by Mr. E. Solly stating that iodic 

 acid which had been freed from water by keeping it in fusion 

 for a short time, during which one half of it was decomposed 

 by the heat, was found to conduct electricity extremely well 

 whilst in its fused state, but that as the points of fusion and 

 decomposition of this substance by heat are the same, it was 

 impossible to ascertain whether it was decomposed by the 

 electric current or not, although the ebullition was thought 

 to be thus increased; and further, that a solution of iodic acid 

 is an electric conductor, iodine appearing at the negative 

 pole. 



From the bearing of these experiments on several interest- 

 ing points of electro-chemistry, particularly on the supposed 

 connection between atomic constitution and susceptibility of 

 voltaic decomposition, I do not feel inclined to concede to 

 any one the priority in making and in publishing them, al- 



* I find 12 pairs of plates to be quite sufficient for the success of this 

 experiment, providing that a longer time (4 or 5 hours} is allowed. 



