98 



considers it most probable that it is, as Liebig supposes, a hydrate 

 of ether ; but he conceives that the non-action of the pile on ether 

 is unfavourable to Liebig's view, that ether is the oxide of an un- 

 known radicle, because on that view it ought to suffer decomposi- 

 tion. 



The author was farther led to examine the evidence for Mr 

 Faraday's principle of the definite action of the electric current, in 

 so far as regarded solutions ; and found it fully established with re- 

 spect to water, as was shown by the constant quantity of hydrogen 

 evolved from vai-ious acid, alcaline, and saline solutions. He con- 

 ceives, however, that in solutions of the hydracids, the acid is not 

 directly decomposed, and that those cases are merely additional in- 

 stances of the definite decomposition of water. This he found, by 

 connecting the diluted acid with the negative side, and water, pure, 

 or acididated with sulphuric acid, with the positive side, making 

 the communication between the liquids by moistened asbestus ; in 

 which circumstances, hydrogen and oxygen were evolved at the 

 two poles, but no chlorine or iodine was drawn towards the positive 

 side in either liquid ; and it was only after a long time, when some 

 of the hydracid itself had passed into the positive liquid, that chlo- 

 rine or iodine appeared in very minute quantity by a secondary ac- 

 tion. When the battery was reversed, and the hydrogen made posi- 

 tive, the oxygen was no longer evolved, and the chlorine or iodine 

 appeared immediately as secondary products. Analogous experi- 

 ments showed that the decomposition of the haloid salts was a 

 secondary effect. 



The author found, that when iodic acid was freed from water, by 

 keeping it fused in a tube till water was quite expelled, and then 

 acting on it by the pile in a fused state, the galvanometer was de- 

 flected ; but as the heat of fusion was alone sufficient to decompose 

 it, this may not be a true example of voltaic action, and conse- 

 quently may not be an exception from the supposed limitation of 

 electric action to substances composed of a like number of atoms of 

 their constituents. 



2. A Review of some of the more important Physical Truths 

 contained in the writings of the Greek Philosophers, 

 preparatory to an attempt to show that the more an- 

 cient language of Greece was based upon the Truths of 

 Natural Philosophy. By the Rev. Archdeacon Wil- 

 liams. 



