1819.] History of Anthrazothionic Acid. 99 
a stronger acid; and no Jase which will not be electronegative 
with regard to a more powerful base. When, therefore, such 
compounds are exposed to the action of galvanism, the weaker 
acid of a double acid must pass to the negative pole, and the 
weaker base of a double base to the positive pole ; so that the 
weaker acid will assume the character ofa base, and the weaker 
base of an acid. Azote, iodine, and sulphur, sometimes put on 
the character of acids, sometimes of bases. According to this 
view of the subject, there can be no fixed acid with respect to all 
electronegative bodies, except oxygen; and no fixed base with 
respect to all electropositive bodies, except hydrogen. But 
oxygen is not acid; neither has hydrogen the properties of a 
base, or an alkali; so that this view of the subject obliges us to 
consider a substance as an absolute acid, which is not acid at 
all, and another as an absolute base, or an absolute alkali, which 
is not alkaline at all. On the other side it obliges us to reckon 
bodies which possess the distinguishing characters of acids and 
alkalies ; namely, an acid and alkaline taste, the property of 
giving a red or a green colour to vegetable blues, &c. as neither 
acids nor alkalies. To make the terms acid and electronegative, 
alkah and electropositive, synonymous, is, in fact, to confound 
what ought to be separated. ‘These anomalies, I conceive, I 
have cleared up in my observations on the definitions of aczd and 
alkal, which were published four years ago.—(Schweigger’s 
Journal, ix.331.) In my opinion an acid is a body, which, when 
dissolved in water, acts upon the liquid like the positive pole of a 
battery; while an alkali is a body which, being dissolved in water, 
acts upon tt like the negative pole of a battery. According to this 
explanation, we are not obliged to consider azote, sulphur, iodine, 
either relatively to acids or alkalies; for they may in certain 
compounds enter into electrochemical action, sometimes with 
the positive, and sometimes with the negative pole of the battery, 
just as these poles do with water; but these substances enter 
mto no such action with the water, but seem to be quite zndif- 
ferent with respect to it. Water at the positive pole shows, as 
is known, all the properties of an acid; it reddens vegetable 
blues, oxidizes metals, prevents (neutralizes) the action of alka- 
lies. At the negative pole, on the other hand, it shows all the 
ee pariics of an alkali; it precipitates the bases dissolved in 
acids ; gives a green colour to vegetable blues ; prevents (neu- 
tralizes) the action of acids. It has been ascertained besides, 
that these actions can continue in pure water only as long as the 
electrochemical action of the battery continues. From this we 
may in some measure comprehend how an alkali (ammonia), or 
its elements, by its union with another body (sulphuret of carbon), 
may alter its neutral. electrochemical point so fer as to assume 
all the Picpertics of an acid: as a metal, for example, mercury, 
1s capable, by uniting with even a very small auantity of another 
re? | 
