ly Means of Gultank Electricity. 337 



mediately will change reciprocally and alternatively their 

 component principles without changing their nature. From 

 this I infer, that if it were possible to establish a current of 

 Galvanic electricity in water, in such a manner as to describe 

 in the latter a perfectly circular line, all the molecules of 

 the liquid situated in this circle would be decomposed and 

 instantly recomposed : whence it follows, that this water, 

 although undergoing the effect of the Galvanic action, will 

 always remain water. 



XXI. Having exposed some liquid?, contained in two or 

 more vases, to the action of the electrometer apparatus, I 

 perceived the polarity at the extremities of the metallic wires 

 which serve to establish the communication between the li- 

 quids inclosed in each vase. (See fig. 2.) Thus, when the 

 vases contained acetate of lead dissolved, in water, I obtained 

 oxygen at the extremities a and c, while the vegetations al- 

 ready described rose at the extremities b and d*. 



Upon bringing the vessels nearer together, and upon cur- 

 tailing the dimensions of the wire he as much as possible, 

 the electrical polarity was nevertheless distinctly percepti- 

 ble ; by imagining the same wire infinitely small, one may 

 conceive how the molecules n and p unite upon regene- 

 rating the body which was at first decomposed. 



XXIT. The theory of the decomposition of water here 

 given leads us to the following consequences: 



(a) The proportion of hydrogen could not have increased 

 in the part of the water which is nearest to the positive pole, 

 since the oxygen of the whole quantity of the Hquid tra- 

 versed by the Galvanic current inclines towards this point, 

 while the hydrogen endeavours to recede from it. 



(b) An oxygenation in that part of the water which sur- 

 rounds the negative pole is equally impossible, since the 

 hydrogen is there constantly attracted, while the oxygen is 

 repelled from it. See § IX. 



» I have communicated my memoir to M. Morichini. This chemist .in- 

 formed me that he obtained an analogous result upon examining the gases 

 which are liberated when the gases only contain water. The extremities 

 « and r yielded oxygen gas, while the hydrogen gas came from the extremi- 

 ties /■ and </. 



Vol. 25. No. loo. Sept. J 606. Z (c) When 



