(fa Chcmico-Gatvcmtc Olservaticits* 



§V. 



Nitric Acid cannot le obtained, in Water galvanized post* 

 tivety with a Gold IFire. 



Cruickshank and other chemists have supposed that the 

 acid formed in water exposed to the Galvanic action on the 

 positive side of the pile is nitric acid. The author observes 

 upon this occasion, that silver, which he had often submitted 

 to this influence, never yielded (however long or vigorous 

 the Galvanic action) any thing else than a brownish gray 

 precipitate without the least symptom of nitrate, which, 

 being very soluble, ought to have manifested itself in the 

 water. Cruickshank, in maintaining the existence of this 

 salt in the above case, tries to explain its insolubility by 

 attributing it to an excess of base as well as cf oxide of 

 silver. 



The author, in order to ascertain if the precipitate of silver 

 thus obtained contained any nitric acid, treated it with pure 

 potash j and he never obtained the slightest appearance of 

 nitre. 



He placed this precipitate of silver, recently produced, 

 in a little tube full of pure water, and galvanized it a whole 

 day with a gold wire attached to the positive side of a strong 

 pile. The precipitate remained insoluble; and the water 

 did not appear to contain an atom of any salt with a base of 

 silver. We shall speak by and by of the difference which 

 exists between the deposit furnished by silver wire galva- 

 nized in water, according as it answers the positive or ne- 

 gative side of the pile. 



§ VI. 



Upon the Nature of the Alkali formed in Water ly 



Galvanism. 



All the chemists who supposed that they had formed an 

 alkali in water galvanised by the negative side of the pile, 

 believed that this alkali was ammonia. Its formation, from 

 the hvdiocen liberated in the process, and a little azote, 

 which may be met with in water even when distilled, ap- 

 peared natural enough. Our author, however, who never 



found 



