Extrication of the Alkalijiahle Metals^ Sj'c. 293 



equal vigor, and if one died and the other survived its effects, we 

 find that the latter had urinated largely. The diuretics merit 

 some attention ; they are not to be used until the stomach is 

 emptied of its contents by some mild emetic and tepid water. 



In a medico-legal examination for antimony, most of the steps 

 that have been proposed in the case of arsenic can be followed ; 

 the principal modification is where either nitric acid or heat has 

 been used to carbonize the animal matter ; for in that case, muri- 

 atic acid slightly diluted is to be employed as the dissolving agent 

 instead of water. 



Paris, December 6, 1840. 



Art. VI. — On the Extrication of the Alkalifiable Metals, Bari- 

 um, Strontium, and Calcium; by Robert Hare, M. D., Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. 



Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 4, 1839. 



In the autumn of 1820, 1 devised an innovation in the mechan- 

 ism and in the mode of completing the circuit of an extensive vol- 

 taic series. Previously to that time, in using any form of the vol- 

 taic battery, the circuit had always been completed by making a 

 communication between the electrodes,* after the submersion of 

 the plates. In the case of the deflagrator, the electrodes might 

 be made to communicate before the immersion of the plates, the 

 circuit being completed by their immersion. Or, in case the elec- 

 trodes should not be in contact before immersion, the operator was 

 enabled to bring them together so nearly about the same time, as 

 to avail himself of the pre-eminently energetic action which im- 

 mediately succeeds the encounter between the plates and the 

 solvent. 



Fourteen years had elapsed, during which I had the regret of 

 perceiving that the advantages of the deflagrator were not suffi- 

 ciently estimated in Europe, when, about the year 1835, the cel- 

 ebrated Faraday,! while investigating the principles upon which 

 galvanic apparatus should be constructed, came to a conclusion 



* Agreeably to the suggestion of Faraday, I use the word electrode, for the pole of 

 a voltaic series ; also anode, for the positive pole, and cathode for the negative pole. 



t See London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal, vol. viii, for 

 1836, p. 114. 



Vol. XL, No. 2— Jan. -March, 1841. 38 



