AND SCHONBEIN 35 



that Club I request you to be so good as to forward 

 them to their destination. 



I thank you most sincerely for your kindness in 

 answering the letter in which I had the honour to 

 inform you of my observations on the polarization of 

 water and other electrolytic liquids. In the course 

 of the last few months I have instituted a large 

 number of new experiments on this subject, and 

 have arrived at results which in my opinion give 

 a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. In 

 a paper which will, I hope, soon be published in 

 Poggendorff's Annalen, 1 I have described part of my 

 observations and have endeavoured to show that 

 electrolytic liquids are not capable of voltaic polariza- 

 tion in the proper sense, and that the current which 

 is produced by the so-called polarized bodies is due 

 to chemical action. I rely chiefly on the following 

 facts to prove the correctness of this view. An 

 aqueous solution of hydrogen (containing some 

 sulphuric acid to make it a better conductor) bears 

 the same electrical relation to an aqueous solution of 

 oxygen (also containing sulphuric acid), that the 

 liquid (water acidified with sulphuric acid) in one 

 limb of a U-tube, in which the negative pole of a 

 battery has been placed bears to the same liquid in 

 the other limb connected with the positive pole. 

 The two latter liquids only show themselves polarized 

 after the current has traversed them, if they are 

 connected with the circuit by means of platinum 

 wires and not if wires of gold or silver are employed. 

 1 Poggend. AnnaL, vol. xlvii. (1839) p. 101. 



