Ethereal Solutiotis. — Solutio?is of Haloid Salts. 357 



direct decomposition of the muriatic acid by the voltaic cur- 

 rent; for when I recollect that pure fether resisted very power- 

 ful voltaic currents, and that even potash, which has so won- 

 derful an effect in promoting the galvanic decomposition of 

 the water in absolute alcohol, did not make aether more sus- 

 ceptible of electric agency, I cannot allow myself to suppose 

 that the decomposition in the case of an asthereal solution of 

 a hydracid is that of water entering into the constitution 

 of aether, but adhere to the original view, that sether con- 

 tains no water, and that alcohol consists of aether and of 

 water. 



IV. Ofi the state in xohich the Haloid Salts are dissolved by 

 Water and Alcohol. — The question whether haloid salts are 

 dissolved by water as such, or decompose it and assume the 

 state of hydracid salts, is one on which chemists are still di- 

 vided. The action of voltaic electricity on such solutions 

 appears to me to decide the matter: during such action it is 

 frequently difficult, particularly in the case of iodides, to ob- 

 serve any acid reaction at the positive pole, when both poles 

 are plunged directly into the solution, on account of the re- 

 ducing action of oxygen on the acid formed ; and even in 

 those cases in which acid is observed, that circumstance will 

 not of itself prove the haloid to be dissolved as a hydracid 

 salt, because it might be held that acid is formed by secondary 

 action at the negative pole, from whence it is drawn to the 

 positive. In this way only, on the hypothesis of solution as 

 a haloid, and direct voltaic decomposition of water alone, can 

 the separation of reduced metal at the negative pole be ac- 

 counted for. A doubt might also exist whether the acid re- 

 action at the pole might not arise from an oxyacid Ibrmed by 

 secondary action at the positive. All such objections are, 

 however, obviated by placing the poles beyond the solution, 

 so as to get quit of secondary actions; and if in such circum- 

 stances we can show that the acid and the base go to their 

 proper poles, and that this acid is a hydracid, we have, I con- 

 ceive, sufficient evidence that the salt has been dissolved as a 

 hydracid salt; for even laying aside for a moment the experi- 

 ments by which I have endeavoured to show that the haloids, 

 if existing as such in water, are not directly decomposed, 

 let us take the different views of the nature of the galvanic 

 action which suggest themselves when both poles are plunged 

 into the solution in the ordinary manner, and consider them 

 on the supposition that haloids are dissolved as such. First, 

 let us sujipose that one or other of the two substances, water 

 or haloid, it matters not which, is decomposed, it is evident 

 that we cannot account for the production of acid where 



