of Electrical and Chemical Changes. 33 



opinion. Ritter's work contains some very ingenious and 

 original experiments on the formation and powers of sinole 

 galvanic circles; and Winterl's some bold, though loose spe- 

 culative views * upon the primary causes of chemical pliseno- 

 mena : and in the obscurity of the language and metaphysics 

 of both these gentlemen, it is difficult to say what may not be 

 found. In the ingenious, though wild views, and often inex- 

 act experiments of Hitter, there are more hints which may be 

 considered as applying to electro-magnetism than to electro- 

 chemistry; and Winterl's miraculous J?«rfro?«/a might, with as 

 much propriety, be considered as a type of all the chemical 

 substances that have been since discovered, as his view of the 

 antagonist powers, the acid and basic, can be regarded as an 

 anticipation of the electro-chemical theory. The queries of 

 Newton at the end of his " Optics" contain more grand and 

 speculative views that might be brought to bear upon this 

 question than any found in the works of modern electriciansf; 

 but it is very imjust to the experimentalists who, by the la- 

 borious application of new instruments, have discovered novel 

 facts and analogies, to refer them to any such suppositions as, 

 "that all attractions, chemical J, electrical, magnetic, and gra- 

 vitative, may depend upon the same cause ;" or to still looser 



* As a specimen of the Prolusiones, I shall give a few articles from the 

 index, which will show the character of the work. Prolusiones, na<r 256 

 et seq. ' ^ ' 



256. " Adamas est Andronia. 



260. " Andronia cum Plumbo creat Barytam, cum Ferro Chalybem. 



262. " Carbo est acidus cum Atmosphaera basica. 



263. " Chromium non est nisi Calx Magnesii acida. 



— -. " Cuprum cum Andronia coaleseitin MoybdEenum. 



268. " Scintilla electrica formatur a Principiis Conductorem primum et 

 secundum animantibus, ac inter se concurrentibus ; est gravis, habet affec- 

 tum electricitati contrarium." 



t See the eloquent observations of M. Chenevix on the subject of 

 Wmterl's Theory, Amides de Chimie, vol. 50, 2 cap. 175. 



X \n the St/steme Universellc of M., \z3\s,not only are all the phaenomena 

 of nature referred to the same cause, but specific reasonings upon the mode 

 of its operation given. In this work, published in 1810, not only is the 

 identity of magnetism and electricity insisted on, but an attempt is made 

 to explain the manner in which the two electrical fluids produce the mag- 

 netic phaenoinena, pag. 23.9, vol. i. " Ainsi ces deux ordres de I'heiioraenes 

 sont tres resemblans. Repetons que toutes leurs differences resultent uni- 

 quement de ce que les deux fluides sont moins intenses lorsqu'ils produisent 

 les phenomenes duJVIagnetisme que lorsqu'ils produisent les phenomenes 

 du Galvanisme, &c." It requires only the same principle as that censured 

 m the text to refer to this autiior the discovery of Oersted and the specu- 

 lations of Ampere. M. Azais, in his " fluides mineure et majeure," fiiHls all 

 the causes of the acid and alkaline properties oi'hodies:— slow combinations, 

 the heat produced, and all the phenomena of chemical chaise; and his 

 reasonings are often very ingenious. 



'New Series Vol. 1. No.l. Jan. 1827. F expres- 



