THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE. 



I. The Bakerian Lecture, on some Chemical Agencies of 

 Electricity. Bij HuMrHKV Daw, Esq. F. R. S. 

 M.R.LA.* 



1 . Introduction. 



JL HE chemical effects produced by electricity have been for 

 some lime objects of philosophical attention ; but the no- 

 velty of the phaenoniena, their want of analogy to known 

 facts, and the apparent discordance of some of the results, 

 have involved the inquirv in much obscurity. 



An attempt to elucidate the subject will not, I hope, be 

 considered by the society as unfitted to the design of the 

 Bakerian lecture. I shall have to detail some minute, and 

 I fear tedious, experiments ; but they were absolutely essen- 

 tial to the investigation . I shall likewise, however, be able 

 to ofTer some illustrations of appearances which hitherto have 

 not been fullv explained, and to point out some new pro- 

 perties of one of the most powerful and general of material 

 agents. 



II. On the Changes produced hj Electricity in Water. 



The appearance of acid and alkaline matter in water acted 

 on by a current of electricity at the opposite electrified me- 

 tallic surfaces, was observed in the first chemical experi- 

 ments made with the column of Voltaf. 



Mr. Cruickshank % supposed that the acid was the nitrous 

 acid and the alkali ammonia. M. Dcsormes§ soon after 



* From the Transactions of the Royal Smiety, part i. for 1807. 



\ Nich)lHon's Jouriial, 4to., vol. iv. p. 183. 



\ Ibid. vol. iv. p. 'ifil. 



§ Annalcs dc Clilrr.ie, toiii. xxxvii. p. 23.'J. 



Vo). 28. No, 109. June 1807. A 2 attempted 



