ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY. 25 



wires from a galvanic battery are introduced into the 

 vessel the negative wire into the compartment C, 

 and the positive wire into D. These wires, as they 

 pass through the stoppers, are encased in capillary 

 tubes, with only their extremities exposed. The 

 vessel has two tubulures, E and F, into which tubes 

 are inserted which have their upper extremities 

 sealed. These tubes are bent at their lower extremi- 

 ties to collect the gases which come off from the 

 respective wires of the battery. The cells of the 

 battery which I employ, are filled with spring 

 water, and the glass vessel with water that has been 

 distilled. It is evident that gas will come off from 

 the extremities of both wires of the battery, just as 

 if no platinum plate was interposed platinum being 

 a conductor of electricity ; and it is obvious that 

 whatever quantity of electricity is concentrated at 

 the extremity of either wire, an equivalent quantity 

 of electricity will be induced upon the surface of the 

 plate opposite to the wire, and I experimentally 

 found that this induced electricity was diffused over 

 the surfaces of the plate. And as oxygen and 

 hydrogen are not given off from the wires of a bat- 

 tery when the electricity is low in intensity and 

 small in quantity, I therefore inferred that when the 

 power of the battery was so very low that the 



