On some Chemical Agencies of Electric'Ui/. 221 



be improper to place unbounded confidence in this hypo- 

 thesis J but it seems naturally to arise from the facts, and to 

 coincide with the laws of affinity, so ably developed by 

 modern chemists ; and the general application of it may be 

 easily made. 



Supposing two bodies, the particles of which are in dif- 

 ferent electrical states, and those states sufficiently exalted 

 to give them an attractive force superior to the power of 

 aggregation, a combination would take place which would 

 be more or less irftense accordmg as the energies were more 

 or less perfectly balanced ; and the change of properties 

 would be correspondenlly proportional. 



This would be the simplest case of chemical union. But 

 different substances have different degrees of the same elec- 

 trical energy in relation to the same body : thus the different 

 acids and alkalies are possessed of different energies with re- 

 gard to the same metal; sulphuric acid, for instance, is more 

 powerful with lead than muriatic acid, and solution of pot- 

 ash is more active with tin than solution of soda. Such bo- 

 dies likewise may be in the same state or repellent with re- 

 gard to each other, as apparently happens in the cases just 

 mentioned ; or they may be neutral ; or they may be in op- 

 posite or attracting states, which last seems to be tlie con- 

 dition of sulphur and alkalies that have the =ame kind of 

 energy with regard to metals. 



When two bodies repellent of each other act upon the 

 same body with different degrees of the same electrical at- 

 tracting energy, the combination would be determined by 

 the degree: and the substance possessing the weakest energy 

 would be repelled; and this principal would afford an ex- 

 pression of the causes of elective affinity, and the decompo- 

 sitions produced in consequence. ' 



Or where the bodies having different degrees of the same 

 energy, with regard to the third body, had likewise differ- 

 ent energies with regard to each other, there might be such 

 a balance of attractive and repellent powers as to produce a 

 triple compound ; and by the extension of this reasoning, 

 complicated chemical union may be easily explained. 



Numerical illustrations of these notions might be made 



withuu^ 



