I7fi On the Composition of the Muriatic Acid. 



whole coulinuance of the experiment, had been the decom- 

 position of a portion of the water employed, and the sepa- 

 ration, in a pure state, of the oxygen and hydrogen gases 

 of which it was formed. The society is therefore of opi- 

 nion, that M. Pacchiani is deceived respecting the nature of 

 the acid which he announced he had obtamed, or that this 

 acid may have come from some animal or vegetable sub- 

 stance employed in his appatatus. They do not hesitate to 

 declare that to the apparatus employed by themselves they 

 give the preference, as the simplest and most remote from 

 any foreign, influence ; and they do not believe that it is pos- 

 sible to produce any thing by the action of the Galvanic 

 pile, except the decomposition of a greater or less propor- 

 tion of the water submitted to its action. 



XXXr. Extract of a new Letter of Dr. Fkancis Pac- 

 chiani, Professor of Natural Philosophj in the Univer^ 

 sifif of Pisa, to M. Fabroni, upon the Composition of 

 the Muriatic Acid*, 



J. HE efTorts which the best naturalists have hitherto made 

 to explain in what manner water is decomposed by means 

 of the electrical column, and to give an account, with pre- 

 cision, of the important questions which have arisen on this 

 subject, demonstrate that the principles from which they 

 set out, in order to attain their object, were far removed 

 from being an immediate result of facts clearly ascertained, 

 and that they were given to the public without regard to the 

 inductions of science. 



When hypotheses are established by analogy, if they do 

 not perplex the mind of the philosophical observer, they 

 certainly will be of great assistance to him in his researtih 

 after truth ; but when they are too hastily erected into prin- 

 ciples, instead of aiding- the judgment, they hinder it from 

 displaying itself, and arriving at those sublime truths which 

 are the object of its labours. 



* /rom Annales dc Ciiimie, tome Ivi. 



I have 



