438 Remarks on the Phenomena of Galvanism. [JUNB, 



When water is decomposed by the galvanic action, and two dis- 

 tinct gases appear at the opposite wires, although separated by such 

 a body of water, one of these gases must have been transferred in 

 an invisible manner from one wire to the other, or the water must 

 have been decomposed at each wire, and the constituent portions 

 which do not appear at the point of decomposition must have be- 

 come so far changed and influenced by the fluids from tlie battery, 

 as to have passed with them through the water in an invisible state. 

 This latter opinion, though rather novel, is agreeable to what has 

 been advanced, and is strongly corroborated by tlie traiisfer of other 

 substances, as well as those just mentioned. By keeping in view 

 the preceding illustration of galvanic eflfects, it will appear that 

 the hydrogen of the water decomposed at the positive end of the 

 battery will be transferred by the positive fluid towards the nega- 

 tive wire, and there liberated : and that the oxygen of that por- 

 tion of water decomposed at the negative end of the battery will 

 be transfen-ed by the negative fluid to the positive wire, and be 

 there liberated ; and ascend through the water in the character of 

 oxygen and hydrogen gases. 



These inferences are supported by the fact, that all the bodies 

 collected and liberated round each wire of a battery possess such 

 characteristic properties as are likely to be influenced by the attractive 

 affinity of the galvanic fluids; if we admit that tliese fluids possess 

 the constituent nature ascribed to them in this communication.* 



The positive evidence we have that the most dense bodies can 

 be transformed by the agency of caloric to assume so many cha- 

 racters, naturally suggests the idea, that a great variety of com- 

 binations may take place by its union with the constituent parts of 

 water, which' are still unknown ; and no products are more likely 

 to be among this class than those elastic compounds which, in all 

 probabilit}', form the galvanic fluids ; as they seem a link between 

 well known gesecus bodies and caloric, by partaking of the con- 

 stitutional character of the one, and the action and subtle nature 

 of the other. Nor is it improbable but both the electric and gal- 

 vanic fluids will, at some advanced period of these sciences, be 

 considered merely as a newly discovered class of peculiar gaseous 

 bodies, sufficiently attenuated by various degrees of caloric to give 

 them different electrical energies. 



It is not the results mentioned in this paper only that support 

 this mode of reasoning, for the whole series of regular galvanic 



* In a small essay I lately published on Electricity, I li.ive endeavoured to 

 shew the prol)ability that the electric fluids excited' by the machine consist of a 

 lar^e quantity of caloric iiuiumtely united to a small portinn of ©sygen and 

 nitrogen obtained from thi- atmosphere by the mechanical action of the cylinder 

 and nibber. Perhaps if tlie machine was so constructed that the cylinder could 

 be surrounded and worked alternately in different kinds of ^s, the electric lluids 

 excited under these circum-laiKes miglit d!s|)lay a variety in their chemical 

 aclioi' that would lead to some interesting results ; and it is rot extremely impro- 

 bable but that the galvanic fluids uonld also manifest some variety of character, 

 if they were excited by difi"erent agents properly calculated for such a purpose. 



