TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 31 



and consequently attracts the iodine which appears there, when decom- 

 position occurs. The extremity of the wire connected with the copper 

 plate is chlorous, or has the affinity of chlorine ; and consequently, the 

 hydrogen of the hydriodic acid is eliminated there when decomposition 

 occurs. These poles in the decomposing cell of the voltaic circle have, 

 from their importance, always received peculiar appellations, which, 

 with two other terms, Mr. Graham changes as follows : 



Chlorous = Negative. 



Zincous = Positive. 



Chloroid =The negative pole, the cathode, the platinode. 



Zincoid =The positive pole, the anode, the zincode. 



Mr. Graham afterwards endeavoured to show, that electrolytes were 

 bodies which, like hydrochloric acid, possessed a salt radical and basyle 

 element, which might be the seat of the chlorous and zincous affinities, 

 and which might, indeed, be called the chlorous and zincous elements 

 of the electrolyte ; so that the same view was applicable to electrolytes 

 in general*. 



Notice of new Electro-chemical Researches. By Professor Schonbein, 

 {of Basle). 



" The discovery of the chemical power of the voltaic pile made in the 

 beginning of our century by British philosophers, could not fail draw- 

 ing the attention of the scientific world upon the relations which exist 

 between chemical and electrical phaenomena. Indeed, only a few years 

 after this important fact had been acertained, your illustrious country- 

 man. Sir Humphry Davy, as well as the celebrated Swedish philosopher 

 Berzelius, did not hesitate to establish the theory which has since been 

 generally adopted, and which is founded upon the principle that che- 

 mical and electrical forces are essentially the same. 



" Having almost exclusively occupied myself these last six years with 

 researches bearing upon the subject in question, and having obtained 

 from them some results which seem to be altogether irreconcileable 

 with the very first principles of the electro-chemical theory, I enter- 

 tain the hopes, that by making known the details of the investigations 

 alluded to, I shall render some service to science." 



From a review of the consequences flowing from the ordinary elec- 

 tro-chemical theory, M. Schonbein observes : 



" It follows from the doctrines laid down by Davy and Berzelius, that 

 any metal put by any means into the negatively electrical state, has its 

 affinity for oxygen either diminished or altogether destroyed, so as to 

 cease to be an oxidable metal under ordinary circumstances. Now let 

 us see how far facts agree with the principles of the electro-chemical 

 theory. 



* Mr. Graham has since developed his views more fully in the Third Part of his 

 Elements of Chemistry, pp. 197 — 241. 



