OR VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 393 



does it not produce the same effect as that of an 

 oxy-hydrogen blow pipe ? or the concentrated 

 heat of a forge ? and if it produce the same 

 effects, must it not be the same agent? Can 

 electricity render bodies hot, and yet not be an 

 igneous fluid ? When charcoal is submitted to 

 the action of a galvanic current under water, it 

 is ignited, and decomposes the water as when 

 heated by ordinary combustion : and if an iron 

 wire, connecting the extremities of a battery in 

 action, be made to pass through water, it be- 

 comes hot and boils. When the wire is thus 

 heated, it attracts oxygen from water, as when 

 rendered red hot by other means. Like caloric, 

 electricity causes oxygen and hydrogen to com- 

 bine to form water, and again causes its decom- 

 position. 



If then it be an established axiom in philo- 

 sophy, that the same effects should be ascribed 

 to the same cause, caloric and electricity must 

 be essentially the same agent. 



The recent experiments of Dr. Faraday have 

 furnished many important facts, which show the 

 intimate relation between combustion and the 

 evolution of electricity by galvanic action. 



It is very well known, that oxygen is not 

 indispensable to combustion ; that during the 

 rapid combination of chlorine, fluorine, iodine, 

 &c. with carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, phospho- 

 rus, and the metals, caloric is evolved in the 



