adduced by Prof. Faraday in support g/De la Rive's Theaty. 531 



was not yet any chemical action ; " but if one waits until the 

 chemical action shall commence, or if the part of the plate of 

 iron immersed in the liquid is exposed for a moment to the 

 air, which quickly determines the action, that iron itself be- 

 comes positive. And I in the first place inquired whence 

 might arise the negative electrization in the iron, and conse- 

 quently positive in the lead, in the first instant that the cop- 

 per is immersed, if it had yet no chemical action. And how 

 stands now the theory of M. de la Rive? In the second 

 place I demonstrated that the nitric acid increases the electro- 

 tism both in the iron and the lead, but more in the latter than 

 in the former. 1 showed, in the third place, that it was an 

 error to believe that causing the iron to be exposed to the air 

 might be the cause by which it was electrified positively, on 

 again putting it into the acid, because the cause of this posi- 

 tive electrization of the iron was the alteration which the lead 

 suffered in the acid in which it was left immersed whilst the 

 iron was kept in the air. And I proved, lastly, that to explain 

 those experiments by the chemical theory, it is necessary to 

 suppose now that the action of the acid renders the iron posi- 

 tive with respect to the lead, now that it renders it negative; 

 now we must suppose that the action of the acid may be less 

 forcible in the first instants upon the iron than upon the lead ; 

 now we must suppose the contrary. (^ XXVII.) 



Another experiment quoted by M. de la Rive was, that two 

 plates, the one of gold, the other of the purest platina, being 

 fixed to the extremity of the galvanometric wire, and im- 

 mersed in the pure nitric acid, a very sensible current took 

 place when a drop of hydrochloric acid was added to the said 

 liquid. And I demonstrated by ten experiments, first, that 

 the nitric acid, mixed with very little hydrochloric acid, in- 

 creases the relative electromotive faculty both in the gold and in 

 the platina, but more in the latter than in the former ; secondly, 

 that such phaenomena are not derived from electricity imme- 

 diately developed by the chemical action ; thirdly, that it is 

 impossible to explain all the phasnomena which are observed 

 in these experiments by the new theory. (§ XXV.) 



And to all these facts stated in the first section of the second 

 part of my before-mentioned memoir, and which contradict 

 the chemical theory of electromotors, what arguments does 

 M. de la Rive oppose? Perhaps Signor Fusinieri believes 

 that the silence of the learned Genevan is suflicient confuta- 

 tion, or that he may have replied sufficiently in saying that 

 the electricity developed by the chemical action is not alvoays 

 in proportion to the action itself. I should sooner have ex- 

 pected that Signer Fusinieri might have seen in this propo- 

 2 M2 



