HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 61 



was obtained by Simon.* In these experiments 

 we may conceive that there was a minute portion 

 of common salt contained in the water upon which 

 they operated. It was now, however, announced 

 that muriatic acid and soda were generated by 

 passing the electric current through pure water, 

 where the muriate of soda could not be sus- 

 pected to be present in any part of the apparatus, or 

 in any of the materials employed. In the spring of 

 1805, the following letter was published, purport- 

 ing to be written by Mr. Peel of Cambridge : " I Peel's ex- 

 took about a pint of distilled water, and decom- p 

 posed about one half of it by means of galva- 

 nism ; the other half I evaporated, and found to 

 remain at the bottom of the glass a small quantity 

 of salt, which, upon examination, proved to be 

 muriate of soda. The salt could not have been 

 contained in the water before I made the experi- 

 ment, because I used every precaution to have it 

 free from impurities. I even took the trouble to 

 repeat the same experiment, though a tedious one, 

 and I again obtained the same, result. A friend 

 of mine has just informed me that he has tried 

 my experiment, and has succeeded in procuring 

 the salt."* 



Almost at the same time that this notice was Pacchioni'i 

 published in London, Pacchioni, professor at Pisa, ments. 

 gave an account of some experiments upon the 



* Ann. de Chim. xxxvii. 284; xli. 109. 

 f Tilloch's Phil. Mag. x. 221, 279. 



