258 Existence of Radicals in the Amphide Salts disproved. 
gible by supposing the existence of salt radicals. I cannot per- 
ceive that the idea that the anion in the sulphate is oxysulphion, 
makes the explanation more satisfactory than if we suppose it to 
be oxygen. Were a solution of copper subjected to electrolysis 
alone, if the oxide of copper were the primary object of the cur- 
rent, the result would be analogous to the case of sodium, except- 
ing that the metal evolved at the cathode, not decomposing water, 
would appear in the metallic form. If water be the primary ob- 
ject of attack, the evolution of copper would be a secondary ef- 
fect. 
86. It is remarkable, that after I had written the preceding 
interpretation of Daniell’s experiments, I met with the following 
deductions stated by Matteuchi, as the result of an arduous series 
of experiments, without any reference to those of Daniell above 
mentioned. It will be perceived that these deductions coincide 
perfectly with mine. 
87. I subjoin a literal translation of the language of Matteuchi 
from the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, tome 74, 1840, page 
110 :— 
‘‘When salt, dissolved in water, is decomposed by the voltaic cur- 
rent, if the action of the current be confined to the salt, for each equiv- 
alent of water decomposed in the voltameter, there will be an equiva- 
lent of metal at the negative pole, and an equivalent of acid, plus an 
equivalent of oxygen, at the positive pole. The metal separated at 
the negative pole will be in the metallic state, or oxidized, according to 
its nature. If oxidized, an equivalent of hydrogen will be simultane- 
ously disengaged by the chemical decomposition of water.” 
88. "hus it seems, that the appearance of acid and oxygen at 
the anode, and of alkali and hydrogen at the cathode, which has 
been considered as requiring the simultaneous decomposition of 
two electrolytes upon the heretofore received theory of salts, has, 
by Matteuchi, been found to be a result requiring the electrolysis 
of the metallic base only, and, consequently, to be perfectly recon- 
cilable with that theory. 
89. In fact 1 had, from the study of Faraday’s Researches, 
taken up the impression, that the separate appearance of an acid 
and base, previously forming a salt, at the voltaic electrodes, was 
to be viewed as a secondary effect of the decomposition of the 
water or the base; so that acids and bases were never the direct 
objects of electrolytic transfer. 
