NOMOS. 51 



It would also seem that the peculiar transfer of 

 matter which is exhibited in this experiment and in 

 many others, may be accounted for by ordinary 

 chemical laws, and by these laws only. This transfer 

 may be well illustrated by the last experiment; but 

 it will be perhaps better to have recourse to a beau- 

 tiful experiment by Dr. Faraday, in 

 which a battery is made to terminate by J^" 8 ^ 

 silver electrodes in fused chloride of silver. the current 



to be referred 



In this case, as the current passes, there to ordinary 

 is apparently no change in the fused chlo- changes. 

 ride of silver, but the positive electrode 

 is found to grow and the negative electrode is found 

 to waste, and this growth and waste are proportionate 

 to each other. How, then, is this ? The explanation 

 is simple if the chemical theory be adopted, but 

 otherwise it is altogether inexplicable. According 

 to this view, the silver molecule in leaving the nega- 

 tive electrode takes the chlorine from the contiguous 

 molecule of chloride of silver, and sets the silver of 

 this molecule free. This silver acts upon the next 

 molecule in the same manner, appropriating the chlo- 

 rine, forming a new molecule of chloride of silver, 

 and setting the silver free. This silver acts upon the 

 next molecule of chloride of silver, and setting silver 

 free, the liberated silver acts upon the next molecule 

 in the same manner ; and so on from molecule to 

 molecule, through the chloride of silver, until the 

 silver of the last molecule, having no chlorine to 

 unite with, is precipitated upon the positive silver 

 electrode. Thus, for every molecule which wastes 

 away from the negative electrode, every intermediate 



E 2 



