a on 
On the Action of Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Ether, and Aqueous 
Solutions. By Arraur ConneE 1, Esq., F. R.S. E. 
(Read 27th April 1835.) 
I was led into the following train of investigation from ob- 
serving, that, when minute quantities of certain substances were 
dissolved in alcohol, and the liquid was acted on by a moderate 
voltaic power, evident signs of decomposition were exhibited by 
the evolution of elastic fluid at the negative pole. In investi- 
gating the nature of the changes produced, I was farther led to 
examine the action of voltaic electricity on a variety of alcoholic 
solutions, and also the agency of more powerful galvanic batteries 
on pure alcohol and on ether; and, ultimately, I was conducted 
into a field, into which I should have hesitated voluntarily to en- 
ter, namely, the voltaic decomposition of aqueous solutions, 
which has recently been investigated with so much success by 
a distinguished cultivator of science. In the following paper, 
it will be my object to give some account of the experiments 
which I have made on these different subjects, and of the results 
and views to which I have been led. I shall begin with the vol- 
taic action on alcohol and ether, and as I hope to be able to draw 
some conclusions bearing on the various theories which have been 
formed as to the intimate nature of these fluids, it will be neces- 
sary that the experiments made on them shall be detailed with 
considerable minuteness, as it is only by a very careful considera- 
tion of the experimental results, that the validity of the conclu- 
sions can be judged of. 
I. Voltaic Action on Aicohol. 
I found, then, that when alcohol (sp. gr. .830), having about 
stv part of pure caustic potash dissolved in it, was acted on by 
VOL. XIII. PART II. SS 
