Evistence of Radicals in the Amphide Salts disproved. 253 
of Professor Daniell, in his late work, entitled, “Introduction to 
Chemical Philosophy,” page 413 :— 
‘Thus we may conceive that the force of affinity receives an impulse 
which enables the hydrogen of the first particle of water, which under- 
goes decomposition, to combine momentarily with the oxygen of the 
next particle in succession; the hydrogen of this again, with the oxy- 
gen of the next; and so on till the last particle of hydrogen commu- 
nicates its impulse to the platinum, and escapes in its own elastic 
form.” 
71. The process here represented as taking place in the in- 
stance of the oxide of hydrogen, takes place, of course, in that of 
any other electrolyte. P 
72. It is well known, that when a fixed alkaline solution is 
subjected to the voltaic current, that the alkali, whether soda or 
potassa, is decomposed ; so that if mercury be used for the cath- 
ode, the nascent metal, being protected by uniting therewith, an 
amalgam is formed. If the cathode be of platinum, the metal, 
being unprotected, is, by decomposing water, reconverted into an 
oxide as soon as evolved. This shows, that when a salt of po- 
tassa or soda is subjected to the voltaic current, it is the alkali 
which is the primary object of attack, the decomposition of the 
water being a secondary result. 
73. If in a row of the atoms of soda, extending from one elec- 
trode to the other, while forming the base of a sulphate, a series 
‘of electrolytic decompositions be induced from the cathode on the 
right, to the anode on the left, by which each atom of sodium 
in the row will be transferred from the atom of acid with which 
it was previously combined, to that next upon the right, causing 
an atom of the metal to be liberated at the cathode; this atom, 
deoxidizing water, will account for the soda and hydrogen at the 
cathode. Meanwhile the atom of sulphate on the left, which 
has been deprived of its sodium, must simultaneously have 
yielded to the anode the oxygen by which this metal was oxi- 
dized. Of course the acid is left in the hydrous state, usually 
called free, though more correctly esteemed to be that of a sul- 
phate of water. 
74. I cannot conceive how any other result could be expected 
from the electrolysis of the base of sulphate of soda, than that 
