On some Chemical Agencies of Electric'ihj. J3 



inches were introduced into them, so that the circuit of 

 electricity was through the fibrous sulphate of lime. In fiv^e 

 minutes the water in the cup connected with the positive. 

 wire became acid ; that in the opposite cup strongly tin(£ed 

 turmeric. After an hour the fluids were accurately exa- 

 mined ; when it was found that a pure and saturated solu- 

 tion of lime had been produced in the cup contalnino- the 

 negative wire, which was partially covered with a crust of 

 lime, and that the other cup was filled with a moderately 

 strong solution of sulphuric acid. 



I procured two cubical pieces of crystallized sulphate of 

 strontites of about an inch ; a hole was drilled in each ca- 

 pable of containing about eight grains of water ; the cubes 

 were plunged in pure water in a plalina crucible, and the 

 level of the fluid preserved a few lines below the surface of 

 the cubes ; two platina wires were introduced into the holes, 

 which were filled with pure water. The disensagement of 

 gas, when the wires were connected with the battery of 100, 

 proved that the sulphate of strontites was sufliciently porous 

 to form a proper conducting chain. The results vv'cre much 

 longer in being obtained in this experiment than in the last; 

 some time elapsed before a sensible eflfect could be perceived, 

 but the termination was similar. In thirty hours the fluid 

 in the cavity containing the negative wire had crained the 

 property of precipitating solution of sulphate of potash^ and 

 the presence of sulphuric acid in the other cavity was evident 

 from its effect upon solution of muriate of barytes. 



I made an experiment upon fluate of lime under like cir- 

 cumstances ; but the crystallized fluate, not being equally 

 permeable to moisture, the two cavities were connected by 

 moist asbestus. This decomposition was likewise very slow ; 

 but in the course of two days a pretty strong solution of 

 lime was obtained in one tube,- and an acid Huid in the other, 

 which precipitated acctite of lead, and left a spot upon the 

 glass from which it had been evaporated. 



Sulphate of barytes, as might be supposed, proved much 

 more diflTicult of decomposition than either sulphate of stron- 

 tites or fluale of lime. I had made four or five experiments 

 upon it, with the same kind of apparatus that had been ap- 

 plied 



