60 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



elusion, that whenever electricity is sent across a 

 fluid, it disposes its constituents to separate and 

 pass to the two sides respectively ; combustible 

 substances, alkalies, and earths, are attracted to 

 the negative ; acids, oxides, &c. to the positive 

 extremity of the pile. The force of the decom- 

 position they suppose is in the ratio of the 

 quantity of electricity, and that the electricity 

 is in proportion to the surface of metal which 

 is in contact with a moist conductor. The de- 

 composition is also influenced by the affinity 

 of the components of the substance, its power 

 of conducting electricity, and other circum- 

 stances.* 



Supposed Mr. Cruickshanks, among his earliest disco- 

 ofmt!ria ( tTc veries, had observed, that an acid and an alkali 

 5 ' were generated at the two ends of the wires in 

 the interrupted circuit, and this fact had been 

 confirmed by Pfaff,f Brugnatelli,| and other expe- 

 rimentalists. The substances produced were sup- 

 posed to be nitric acid and ammonia; the first 

 originating from the union of oxygen with the 

 azote of air dissolved in the water, the latter from 

 hydrogen combining with the same element. De- 

 sormes also had obtained an acid and an alkali 

 during the decomposition of water; but he thought 

 the acid was the muriatic; and the same result 



* Ann. de Chim. li. 167. 



f Nicholson's Journ. xvii. 362. 



J Journ. de Phys. Ixii. 298 ; Ixjv. 78. 



