2 ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY. 



2. If electricity is regarded by scientific men as a 

 material principle, how conies it that they have 

 made it an exception to the other material elements, 

 by assuming, without proof, that it does not combine 

 with those elements, as those elements combine with 

 each other ? It cannot be because of its imponder- 

 ability, as heat, an imponderable element, is known 

 to enter into chemical combination with the ponder- 

 able elements of nature. 



3. Is it so, that the two electricities are material 

 elements, and that they are not an exception to the 

 common law ; that they combine with the other 

 material elements as those elements combine with 

 each other; and that compound bodies are decom- 

 posed by the two electricities precisely as the ponder- 

 able elements decompose those bodies namely, by 

 respectively combining with the constituents of the 

 body which is under decomposition ; arid thus in all 

 electro decompositions, those bodies which are given 

 off at the positive wire, are given off in combination 

 with the positive electricity of that wire, and those 

 given off at the negative wire are given off in com- 

 bination with the negative electricity of that wire ? 

 And, therefore, when a compound body is decom- 

 posed by electricity, we do not obtain the consti- 

 tuents of that body, but new compounds the two 



