322 Mr ConneE.u on the Action of 
The gas thus collected from the negative pole was examined 
both by chlorine and in the voltaic eudiometer, and was found, 
on repeated trials, to be hydrogen. There was usually mixed 
with it about one-ninth of common air or its constituents, derived, 
as in the former instance, from the liquid, and partly also, perhaps, 
from the water over which it was collected, when water was used 
for that purpose. 
The alcohol acted on acquired a peculiar etherial odour ; 
but I could not find that any farther change was produced on it 
than the admixture of a minute quantity of a yellow resinous 
matter, which was observed by mixing it with a little water, and 
evaporating nearly to dryness. 
Although a battery of considerable energy is required, when 
it is intended to collect the gas evolved from pure alcohol, still it 
is possible to observe the action with smaller powers. Thus when 
alcohol .7928 was acted on by seventy-two pairs of four-inch plates 
in the tube Fig. 2, with foils parallel to one another, and from 
one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch apart, gas was observed 
to arise in the course of one or two minutes ; but the quantity was 
much less than with the greater power, and the liquid got only mo- 
derately warm and never boiled. Even with fifty pairs of two-inch 
plates, and the foils at the above distance, a minute stream of 
bubbles could be sometimes observed with a lens after action for 
a minute or two. With the foils one-tenth of an inch apart, al- 
cohol of .830 shewed no action in the cold with this power, but 
when heated nearly to boiling and then acted on, a slight effer- 
vescence could be observed from the negative pole. 
It is essential, however, that the foils be placed parallel to 
one another, as described in these experiments. If they were 
simply approached to one another horizontally, in an open ves- 
sel, I did not observe any action on pure alcohol even with the 
power of 216 pairs. 
It is now time to recur to the nature of the changes which I 
conceive to take place during this agency; and I am the more 
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