■58 E.rperimenfs made hj the 



water siibmitted to the galvanic action from the contact r>f 

 the hands, and from all infiuence of the surrounding atmo- 

 sphere. They plaocd under a bell glass, the tube, the syphon 

 and the glass containing it, as well as the conducting wires 

 ot gold and the tin foil, in such a manner that they were pro- 

 longed at the exterior by passing under the bell glass. They 

 arranged without touching any thing, and without the aid of 

 any foreign body, except glass tubis washed in distilled wa- 

 ter, the syphon communicating with the glass tube; Jn short, 

 an experiment was never commenced until the apparatus had 

 been disposed with the greaiest possible precaution. They 

 left the apparatus, well covered with its bell glass, upon a 

 table in a room far removed from that in which the piles 

 were mounted ; and these last were afterwards brought ready 

 prepared, at the moment the communication was to be esta- 

 blished. The whole remained in this stale near a window, 

 which was generally open, in a place where no kind of ope- 

 ration whatever was going on, and where there was no che- 

 mical substance whatever. 



The experiments made in this manner produced the same 

 results as to the colouring the tincture of turnsole red, and 

 as to the precipitate of muriate of silver by the solution of 

 nitrate of silver ; but the smell of oxymuriatic acid was not 

 obtained, which had shown itself several times ; and the 

 water of the glass into which the sJtrip of tin foil entered, 

 gave no alkaline traces. The water of the tube alone con- 

 stantly appeared to have evidently changed its state, that of 

 the syphon and the glass remaining the same. 



On uniting all these experinients, and on considering the 

 results obtained from them, the Galvanic Society does not 

 hesitate to conclude (aUvays supposing thai all the- precau- 

 tions mentioned jn the above experiiTienis have been attended 

 to) :— 



Ipt, That distilled water submitted to the galvanic action 

 rvidently undergoes a change of siatc in the ve'^sel, where 

 the oxygen is disengaged by the conducting wire communi- 

 cating with the positive pole. 



2d, That water, in this new state, constantly presents the 

 genuine characters of the tnuriaiic acid. 



3d, 



