EFFECTS OF VAGRANT ELECTRICITY. 357 



enough to warn them that before accepting Professor Ward's ver- 

 sions of mj views, it will be prudent to verify them. 



Postscript. — I said that I did not propose to discuss Professor 

 Ward's own philosophy, and I contented myself with quoting his 

 summary of it — " Nature is Spirit." It occurs to me, however, 

 that as showing the point of view from which his criticisms are 

 made, it may not be amiss to give readers a rather more specific 

 conception of his philosophy, by reproducing a laudatory quotation 

 he makes. Here it is: — - 



" If ' rational synthesis ' of things is what we seek, it is surely more 

 reasonable to say with Lotze : ' What lies beneath all is not a quantity 

 which is bound eternally to the same limits and compelled through many 

 diverse arrangements, continuously varied, to manifest always the very 

 same total. On the contrary, should tlte self-realization of the Idea [!] 

 require it, there is nothing to hinder the working elements of the world 

 being at one period more numerous and yet more intense; at another 

 period less intense as well as fewer'" (i., 218). [The italics are mine.] 



It is M^orth remarking that on the opposite page some of my 

 views are characterized as " astounding feats of philosophical jug- 

 glery " ! 



DESTKUCTIVE EFFECTS OF VAGKANT ELECTRICITY. 



Br HUBERT S. WYNKOOP, M. E. 



LJ) EVERTING to the dictionary for a definition, electrolysis is 

 -*- *^ " the process of decomposing a chemical compound by the pas- 

 sage of an electric current through it." Electroplating is a popu- 

 lar illustration of this definition, having been numbered among the 

 industrial arts for nearly a century. 



If in a bath of sulphate-of-copper solution are placed a copper 

 plate and a plumbago-covered wax mold, the passage of an electric 

 current through the solution, from the plate to the mold, will re- 

 sult in the deposition of copper upon the mold, or negative elec- 

 trode, and the wasting away of the plate of copper, or positive 

 electrode. Generalizing from this and other experiments, it may 

 be broadly stated that the passage of an electric current through a 

 solution of electrolyzable metallic salt, from an oxidizable metal 

 to some other conductor, will be attended by the separation of the 

 salt into two parts: first, the metal, appearing at the negative elec- 

 trode; and, second, an unstable compound of the remaining ele- 

 ments. This unstable compound is supposed to unite with the 

 hydrogen of the water, liberating oxygen, and forming an acid. 

 Both oxygen and acid appear only at the positive electrode, which 



