316 On the injlucnce of certain substances 



possess this property in the greatest perfection, acting on the perox^^ 

 ide of hydrogen, when concentrated, with surprising energy. The 

 decomposition is complete and instantaneous ; oxygen gas is evolved 

 so rapidly as to produce a kind of explosion, and such an intense 

 temperature is excited, that the glass tube in which the experiment 

 is conducted becomes red hot. The reaction is very great even 

 when the peroxide of hydrogen is diluted with water. The oxide 

 of silver occasions a very perceptible effervescence when put into 

 water which contains only one fiftieth its bulk of oxygen. All the 

 metallic oxides, which are decomposed by a red heat, such as those 

 of gold, platinum, silver, and mercury, are reduced to the metallic 

 state when they act upon the peroxide of hydrogen. This effect 

 cannot be altogether ascribed to the caloric disengaged during the 

 action j for the oxide of silver suffers reduction when put into- a very 

 dilute solution of the peroxide, although the decomposition is not then 

 attended by an appreciable rise of temperature." 



In the works to which the author refers, more extensive papers 

 may be found ; but we have preferred referring to the above work, 

 as more accessible to readers. Having seen no explanation of the 

 phenomena above stated, and being induced, by the statements of 

 our author, to believe that no satisfactory theory has been proposed, 

 we have thought proper to offer the following considerations on the 

 subject. That a metal or a protoxide, when presented to a substance 

 containing a large quantity of oxygen loosely combined, should re- 

 ceive a portion of oxygen, at the expense of the other substance, 

 will not excite the surprise of any chemist ; but when we find one 

 substance decomposing another, without uniting with any of the con- 

 stituents of the latter, we recognise a wide departure from the ordi- 

 nary phenomena of decomposition. Our invention is fairly put to 

 the test, when, on placing the oxide of silver in the peroxide of hy- 

 drogen, we see oxygen evoU-ed, not by the fluid only, but by the sol- 

 id oxide; and find that tjiis last is reduced to the metallic state, 

 These, and other phenomena, are at variance with all our observa- 

 tions, and are explicable we think, on no other principles, than tliose 

 which we shall apply. Our rationale is founded on the doctrine of 

 Sir H. Davy and Berzelius, that chemical affinity is the result of 

 electrical agency ; a theory opposed but not refuted. 



When any metal is placed in the peroxide of hydrogen, a galvanic 

 effect is produced. The hydrogen having less affinity for the excess 



