.'370 GALVANIC ELECTRICITY. 



TElectricite et du Magnetisme, par M. Becque- 

 rel, vol. i. p. 88.) 



The above passages are sufficient to show that 

 Fabroni clearly recognized the necessity of che- 

 mical action in all galvanic phenomena, and 

 that his views were much more accurate than 

 those of his contemporaries. Still it must be 

 acknowledged, that he never explained why two 

 metals in contact oxidize more rapidly than 

 when isolated and that no satisfactory account 

 has yet been given of the primary source of 

 galvanic action by his successors the conse- 

 quence of which is, that the theory of the pile, 

 like that of universal chemistry, is still involved 

 in profound obscurity. 



This much, however, is certain, that all the 

 different elements of ponderable matter have 

 various degrees of attraction for caloric ; and 

 that during all chemical combinations, there is 

 a transition of caloric from one to the other. 



When treating of freezing mixtures, it was 

 shown that when chloride of sodium, chloride 

 of lime, potass, and many other salts are brought 

 in contact with ice, there is a rapid abstraction 

 of caloric from the ice to the salts, by which 

 both are dissolved and chemically united that 

 when lead, tin, and bismuth are brought in 

 contact, they dissolve at a much lower tempera- 

 ture than when isolated, and thus unite che- 

 mically into an alloy. For the same reason, 



