112 MK CONNELL ON THE ACTION OF VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY 



In examining the nature of the voltaic action on pyroxylic spirit, it was un- 

 necessary to go into tlie same minuteness of investigation as in regard to alcohol 

 for the analogy of the two cases became immediately apparent, and aU that then 

 was necessary Avas to seize the leading points of resemblance. It will be proper 

 briefly to recapitulate the principal facts which I had observed in regard to alco- 

 hol, and the conclusions which I had drawn from them. 



1st, It was found, that, under powerful voltaic agency, absolute alcohol yield- 

 ed hydrogen fi-om the negative pole, and no elastic fluid from the positive. 



2d, By dissolving minute quantities of certain acid, alcaline and saline bodies 

 in absolute alcohol, this voltaic agency was greatly favom-ed, through an increase 

 of the conducting power of the liquid ; ^j^oth part of potash having a marked ef- 

 fect. 



3^/, By particular arrangements, as by operating in metallic vessels, elastic 

 fluid also appeared at the positive pole. 



4tfi, The quantity of hydrogen obtained at the negative pole was found to be 

 the same as that given off" from water, under the influence of the same electric 

 current. 



5th, Besides elastic fluid, there were formed in the liquid acted on, certain 

 products, the same as, or analogous to, those often resulting from the oxidation of 

 alcohol ; such as resinous matter, carbonic acid which combined with the dis- 

 solved potash, &c. 



6th, From these various facts it was concluded, that water contained in the 

 alcohol was the immediate subject of the voltaic agency, its hydrogen being 

 evolved at the proper pole, and its oxygen being engaged in giving rise, by a se- 

 condaiy action, to the products of oxidation, dissolved in, or precipitated from, 

 the liquid. 



7th, As a general inference from the whole, it was farther concluded that, as 

 the phenomena were obtained with absolute alcohol, that fluid must necessarily 

 contain water as an essential constituent ; a view which, although previously very 

 generally adopted, had not, it was conceived, hitherto received any direct experi- 

 mental proof 



Such were the leading facts and conclusions which it will be easy to shew 

 are all equally applicable to pjToxylic spirit. In these investigations, it was 

 found, that less powerful currents are capable of producing the same effects on 

 p}Toxylic spu-it as on alcohol ; a cu'cumstance probably due to the greater abso- 

 lute quantity, although not greater atomic proportion, of water, in a given weight 

 of the former of these liquids. 



A little more than a dram of the rectified p3Toxylic spirit was exposed in a 

 tube,* with parallel platinmn-foil poles, and adapted for collecting evolved elas- 



* See fig. 2 of plate in former memoir. Ed. Trans, xiii. pi. xiii. 



