5 S Chemico- Galvanic Observations . 



fire, and the solution of which decomposed the nitrate or 

 silver and converted it into muriate of silver. The above che- 

 mist, therefore, had obtained, by means of Galvanism, mu- 

 riatic acid at first, and afterwards the same acid oxygenated, 

 which dissolved gold. 



He tried to vary the apparatus by employing only one 

 tube bent in the form of the letter V. A gold wire was in- 

 serted into each branch, and communicated with the two 

 opposite poles of the pile. He did not then obtain any ap- 

 pearance of muriatic acid in the branch on the side of the 

 positive pole ; and we shall soon see that this acid could 

 not be formed there, because the water of this branch was 

 in free communication with that upon which the negative 

 pole acted. This difference in the results made him suppose 

 that the formation of the muriatic acid in his first exp.erU 

 ments depended upon the presence of the muscular fibre 

 which formed part of the Voltaic circuit. 



Cruickshank (Additional Remarks on Galvanic Electri- 

 city, 1801), on plunging in a solution of muriate of lime 

 a gold wire communicating with the positive pole of a pile, 

 discovered that, after having completed the Voltaic circuit, 

 the water of the solution was decomposed, that the liquor 

 became yellow, assumed the smell of aqua-regia, and that 

 the gold wire was attacked. B.rugnatelli, upon repeating this 

 experiment, always observed a yellowish precipitate, which 

 he discovered was not lime, the base of the muriate, but a 

 true oxide of gold. 



By proceeding in the same manner with a solution of 

 muriate of soda, Cruickshank also obtained oxymuriatic 

 acid, but without the decomposition of any part of the 

 water; so that this acid must have been of new formation. 

 Brugnatelli, upon repeating the experiment with gold wires 

 in solutions of muriate of potash and ammonia, likewise 

 saw oxymuriatic acid formed by the Galvanic action. 



He observes^ that the muriates which dissolve in very 

 little water, as muriate of lime, are the most prompt in 

 evincing the production of oxymuriatic acid by means of 

 Galvanism. 



The simple muriatic acid which is produced in water po- 

 sitively 



