concerned in the Phenomena of ordinary Electricity, §c. 297 



Again, he says, f? I cannot refrain from recalling here the beau- 

 tiful idea put forth, I believe, by Berzelius in his development 

 of his views of the electro-chemical theory of affinity, that the 

 heat and light evolved during cases of powerful combination are 

 the consequence of the electric discharge (of positive and nega- 

 tive electricity) which is at the moment taking place. This idea 

 is in perfect accordance with the view I have taken of the quantity 

 of electricity associated with the particles of matter." It may 

 be added that this was also the opinion of Sir H. Davy. But if 

 the electric discharge thus constitute heat and light, how comes 

 it to pass, that in the case of the small galvanic conductor just 

 alluded to, the 240 millions of one-inch sparks condensed into 

 heat and light (that is fire) did not boil and evaporate the water, 

 melt the connecting wires, and destroy the whole apparatus ? 



All this should happen unless it be supposed that the evolved 

 electricities enter into the composition of the resulting gases ; 

 and that they do not will presently appear. If it be conceded, that 

 when a drop of water is resolved by electricity, and of course by 

 any other means, into its constituent gases, the gaseous mixture, 

 amounting to 7863 cubic inches, holds associated with it elec- 

 tricity to the amount of 240 millions of one-inch sparks ; and 

 if it be admitted that when the two gases recombine to form a 

 grain of water, the two electricities or electric states, by their 

 neutralization, produce the flash and explosion, these ought to 

 amount to a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, instead of 

 the bright little flame and trivial crack which the detonation of 

 seven or eight cubic inches of mixed oxygen and hydrogen pro- 

 duce when they are burnt. Really this is not an exaggerated 

 conclusion. Professor Faraday himself everywhere compares the 

 electricity of a drop of water to a flash of lightning, and surely 

 I have a right to add the clap of thunder as a natural con- 

 sequence. 



But there is another difficulty in the way of the theory beside 

 that of accounting for the disappearance of the electricity, alleged 

 to be equal to 240 millions of one-inch sparks, which is said to 

 be concerned in the decomposition of one grain of water by four 

 grains of zinc, and which I have endeavoured to prove in my 

 two experiments to be neither dissipated, nor reunited in the 

 wire, nor combined in the resulting mixture of oxygen and hy- 

 drogen; Professor Paraday lays down as an essential principle, 

 that " the electricity which decomposes, and that which is evolved 

 by the decomposition of a certain quantity of matter, are alike*.'" 

 lie conceives that during the action of a voltaic combination, 

 consisting of two metals, on acidulated water, such as I employed 

 in my two experiments, the electricity evolved during the oxida- 

 * Researches, par. 868, et alibi. 



