li 

 VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 51 



effected by absorption or combustion, wherein the oxygen 

 red ray, for instance, combines with the body submitted to its 

 action, and the hydrogen blue ray is PLUS, at liberty to pro- 

 duce, by means of its vibrations in conjunction with the nitro- 

 gen yellow ray, (or solely, as the case may be,) certain dis- 

 turbances of the equilibrium while seeking a reunion with the 

 necessary and appropriate atoms of oxygen to re-constitute 

 LIGHT ; and by its excessive energy in its operation affords 

 the sensation called heat, and which is in a ratio of thermo- 

 metrical intensity, corresponding with such energy of action 

 as may be required to reduce the compound matter under pro- 

 cess to its original constituents, whereby such portion of them 

 as may be essential to the reformation of light, shall have been 

 separated, and in a position to assume the order of polarity, 

 requisite for the completion of the radiant state of light. 



- 



VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 



SINCE the origin of the science of voltaic electricity, by the 

 early experiments of Volta, followed by the further elucidations 

 of Galvani, the subject has been pursued with unabated ardour 

 by the philosophers of the Continent, as well as by those whose 

 talents we can claim as the particular property of our country. 



But before w r e make reference to those splendid discoveries 

 of recent date, which have proved the now universally acknow- 

 ledged identity of electricity, the galvanic influence, and mag- 

 netic power, or touch upon the distinguished persons to whom 

 the honour of those brilliant discoveries are eminently due, 

 we shall consider some of the inferences which may be drawn 

 from the phenomena attributable to the action of the Voltaic 

 battery, in reference to composition and decomposition. 



It appears from experiment that when a disc of bright zinc 

 is immersed in an open jar of pure distilled water, even there 



" 



