356 Prof. Connel on the Voltaic Decompositmi of Solutions. 



spirit, which contain water as such as an essential constituent, 

 are submitted to voltaic agency, the dissolved substance is not 

 directly decomposed by the current, but only the water of the 

 solvent." 



III. jEthereal Solutions. — Rectified a;ther gives no sym- 

 ptom of decomposition, nor of conducting power, under the 

 influence of powerful currents, such as that from 200 pairs 

 of four-inch plates ; and although jo ito o^'^ ^f potash has a 

 marked influence in promoting the voltaic deconipostion of 

 alcohol, the largest quantity of that alkali which tether is ca- 

 pable of dissolving has no effect in affording room for any 

 galvanic agency. Neither do any of the ordinary substances 

 soluble in aether, such as corrosive sublimate, chloride of 

 platinum, or chromic acid, produce any such effect. Nor is an 

 oxyacid salt, such as nitrate of uranium, when held in solution 

 by it, I'esolved into its constituents under galvanic action. 

 The conclusion drawn from all these experiments is, that tether 

 does not like alcohol contain water as a constituent*. 



Up to this point, then, aether and aethereal solutions resist all 

 voltaic action. I have since, however, found that when recti- 

 fied aether is saturated with dry muriatic acid gas, and then 

 submitted to moderate galvanic action, hydrogen, retaining 

 some aethereal vapour mixed with it, is liberated at the nega- 

 tive pole, and no gas from the positive, but the liquid ac- 

 quii'es a yellow colour from dissolved chlorine. 



When dry hydriodic acid gas was conducted into aether 

 in a little Wolfe's apparatus, the liquid immediately separated 

 into two layers, a lower dense and deep red, and an upper 

 slightly coloured, which under voltaic agency yielded gas 

 from the negative pole. 



In regard to the latter of these experiments, there can be 

 no doubt that in saturating the aether with hydriodic acid gas 

 decomposition took placej and although the nature of this 

 decomposition was not fulW investigated, it seems probable 

 that the lower liquid consisted principally of iodized hydriodic 

 acid, resulting from the combination of oxygen derived from 

 the aether with hydrogen of a portion of the hydriodic acid, 

 on which view water of course would be formed, and become 

 the subject of the subsequent voltaic action. During the sa- 

 turation of aether with muriatic acid, no signs of decomposi- 

 tion were visible; but still it is not impossible that some inter- 

 nal changes may have taken place, and water resulted from 

 the action united to muriatic acid. Unless such a view be 

 adopted, I should be inclined to hold that there really was 



• Edinburgli Transactions, vol, xiii. p. 331. 



