atte Oh i eee 
On Galvanic Electricity. A7q 
liver, on Galvanic Electricity. Although but a novice at 
that time in the study of chemistry, I was much struck by 
an opinion which he advanced: and, in my pursuit of that de- 
lightful science, havebad frequent and abundant reason to ad- 
mire the sagacity which the doctor displayed on that occasion. 
His hypothesis was no other than that which Mr. Walker 
has so clearly stated in the paper alluded to, but with this 
important addition ; that the ponderable base of both oxy- 
gen and hydrogen, is water. Dr. Wollaston exhibited the 
ignition of charcoal by means of the galvanic battery, and 
deduced from it the simple, and, I think, incontrovertible 
conclusion, that the two substances, commonly denomi- 
nated positive and negative electricity, are, as Mr. Walker 
has asserted, the elements of combustion. On this princi- 
ple, he afterwards explained the formation of water, by the 
combustion of oxygen and hydrogen gases. Their positive 
and negative electricity unite, and form an immense quan- 
tity of caloric, which is disengaged ; and the base, 7. e. the 
water of each of the gases, is precipitated.—That this, or 
something very nearly resembling it, is the true theory, 
there can [ think be but little doubt. It might be correbo- 
rated by the. statements of many chemical phanomena, 
which certainly derive considerable light from this subject*. 
I shall however leave them to the much abler pen of Mr. 
Walker, and merely bring forward ove argument in support 
of it. This argument will perhaps be thought a little ex- 
traordinary by some of your readers, but as I have the hap- 
piness of living in a Christian country and am also writing 
to Christians, I should hope that it will not be altogether 
unacceptable. Every thing that can add confirmation to 
the authenticity of the Scriptures is assuredly desirable; nor 
can science be more nobly employed than in the service of 
religion. It will readily be perceived that Dr. Wollaston’s 
theory is founded on the supposition that water is a simple 
substance, or as it has been denominated from time imme- 
morial, an element. Now this, [ think, may be clearly esta- 
blished from the Mosaic account of the creation. In the 
second verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we meet with 
the words yh and myn; the former of which alludes to 
* It will explain the small quantity of light which is liberated during the 
combustion of oxygen and hydrogen, notwithstanding the intensity of the 
heat. It will also explain the generation of heat by frietion. It will account 
for the formation of water in respiration; and for the immense quantities 
that are precipitated in thunder storms, and at times; when the atmosphere 
was previously in a state of extreme dryness. ‘Will it not also throw lighton 
the radiation of cold? and, in short, on altmost every abstruse and dithicult 
point, as wellin natural as chemical philosophy ? 
the 
