72 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



Hence it may be concluded that acids and alkalies 

 not only exhibit opposite electricities, when they 

 have been in contact with metals, but also when 

 they have been in contact with each other. The 

 attraction of oxygen and acid for the positive, 

 and of hydrogen and alkalies for the negative 

 electricity, is so powerful, as to counteract their 

 usual chemical affinities. 



Relation These considerations induced the author to 

 i enter into some farther speculations respecting the 



city and af- relation between the electricity of bodies and their 



fiuity of 



bodies. chemical affinities. We have seen that chemical 

 affinity is destroyed by giving a body an electri- 

 city different from its natural one, and is, on the 

 contrary, increased by giving it a greater share of 

 its natural electricity. It would farther appear, 

 that all those bodies which possess a chemical 

 affinity for each other are naturally in opposite 

 states of electricity ; and hence we conclude, that 

 by inducing a state of electricity upon any body, 

 contrary to its natural one, its chemical relations 

 may be changed, and that thus we have in our 

 possession an agent of indefinite power for affect- 

 ing the decomposition of substances which had 

 hitherto withstood all our attempts. 



Action of With respect to the action of the voltaic pile, 

 thevoitaic g ir ft Dav y conce i veSj that the fi rst step m t h e 



process is the destruction of the electrical equili- 

 brium, and that the chemical changes tend to 

 restore it to its original state. The saline solution, 

 which is interposed between each pair of plates, is 



