er ae 
407 
Lest it should be supposed that this quantity had been 
really evolved, but was lost by dissipation, an experiment was 
made, in which a voltaic pair, the zine weighing four grains, 
was made to act as above described, the whole being contained 
in a hermetically sealed glass vessel, with an electrometer so 
constructed that it would indicate the smallest quantity of 
dissipated electricity ; but there was not the slightest appear- 
ance of such. 
Should it be affirmed that the alleged enormous quantity 
of electricity was produced, but, being in the positive and nega- 
tive states, they neutralized and destroyed each other, the fol- 
lowing experiment was opposed to the supposition. A plate 
of zine was connected with a plate of platinum, by means of 
an inch of platinum wire +4, inch thick : this was included in 
a glass sphere with dilute sulphuric acid, the glass being her- 
metically sealed. When the acid was made to act on the zinc, 
there was not the least appearance of heat in the platinum 
wire, resulting from the neutralization of the alleged enormous 
quantity of the two states of electricity ; nor were any traces 
of electrical action on the electrometer discoverable. If, ac- 
cording to the hypothesis, the equivalent of 240 millions of 
positive and negative one-inch sparks had passed through the 
_ platinum wire, at the rate of 1,600,000 per second, need it be 
inquired what would have become of the wire and the whole 
apparatus. Van Marum, with one discharge of his battery, 
melted forty feet of thin iron wire. 
The supporters of the doctrine here objected to may 
maintain that the alleged quantity of electricity was really in 
operation, but that it was retained and concealed in the con- 
stitution of the resulting gases; and this also seems to be the 
opinion of Faraday, by his adoption of the electro-chemical 
theory of Berzelius, wherein he expresses his belief that the 
__ light and heat evolved during combination are produced by the 
discharge of positive and negative electricity which at that 
moment takes place. If in the seven or eight cubic inches of 
VOL. III. 2M 
