1 4 ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY. 



oxygen which was evolved from the chlorate of po- 

 tassa ceased to be gaseous, as the tube which con- 

 tained it, when opened under water, failed to give off 

 bubbles of gas, and a change had also taken place in 

 the iodine, as its presence in the tube which con- 

 tained it, when heat was applied, could no longer be 

 distinguished by the peculiar characteristic colour of 

 its vapour. 



14. I have thus demonstrated by these experi- 

 ments, all of which I pledge myself to perform, that 

 iodine, oxygen, potassium and sodium, are not simple 

 but compound bodies ; that in those bodies there are 

 imponderable elements in combination with ponder- 

 able elements, and that when deprived of their im- 

 ponderable elements a change takes place in their 

 properties. 



I had now exhausted my supply of those tubes of 

 German glass which for hardness and thickness are 

 available for those experiments, and I must now 

 wait for another supply before I can resume my in- 

 quiry into the positive changes which take place in 

 bodies when deprived of their respective electricities. 



15. It is obvious that the decomposition of the 

 iodide of potassium does not indicate that the bodies 

 which have decomposed it are wholly deprived of 

 the electricity in combination with them. With a 



