452 Additional Notes. 



^ Identity of Electricity and Galvanism, p. 3 1 . 



There appears to be now no longer any doubt tliat the 

 Galvanic and electric fluids are the same, differing in the 

 means of their excitement, and in the modes of their exhi- 

 bition. Besides the evidence arising from the celebrated ex- 

 periment of Van Marum, in which a large electrical bat- 

 tery was charged by a single contact with the pile of Volta, 

 as before stated, we find, among the Galvanic phenomena, 

 indications of the plus and minus, or the negative and positive 

 operation, which holds so important a station among the doc- 

 trines of electricity: we find also the electric spark, and sub- 

 stantially the same results, on employing the Condenser oi eXtc- 

 tricity and the Electrometer. The interesting experiments of 

 Dr. WoLLASTON, before-mentioned, tend strongly to the esta- 

 blishment of this point. He even found that, when common 

 electricity is passed through water, by means of two very fine 

 metallic points, chemical changes are effected by it, similar 

 to those occasioned by the transmission of the Galvanic in- 

 fluence. 



It is scarcely necessary to add, that the most able experi- 

 menters on the subject of Galvanism are as unanimous in 

 considering this fluid as an important chemical agent. — 

 ** That a strong chemical action takes place among the sub- 

 stances composing the pile of Volta is clearly proved, since 

 one of the metals is always oxydated, and the saline solu- 

 tion employed to moisten the pasteboard is decomposed ; and 

 that this action is intimately connected with the excitation of 

 the electric energy, is established by numerous experiments. 

 The power of the apparatus ceasing when it is placed in the 

 exhausted receiver of the air-pump, or in a vessel filled with 

 azotic or hydrogen gas, strongly illustrates this point. When 

 it is considered, also, that the apparatus is more powerful in 

 oxygen gas than in the atmospheric air, and that in citlier 

 the oxygen is consumed; and that its powers are much in^ 

 creased when the water in contact with the metal holds 

 in solution oxygen, nitrous gas, diluted nitric or muriatic 

 acid, or anv substance which either affords oxygen with 

 facility, or promotes the oxydation of the metal, the evidence 

 of strong chemical action will be viewed as still more un- 

 questionable. '1 lie power of the Galvanic series or column 

 seems, indeed, to be proportioned to the oxydation of the 

 metal which composes it; and hence it may, with much pro^ 



