CHEMICAL THEORY. iQQ 



Mnder water, we may obtain the oxigen gas frdra one point, Blssertnticn oa 

 and the hydrogen gas from the other ; and this appears lo me gjj^gjjf of'^iiea? 

 to be caused by the base of the oxigen gas existing in the Usrht, and corn- 

 water con:>bining with the matter of light from one end of '^'^'^'""• 

 the trough, and the matter of heat uniting with the base of 

 the hydrogen gas at the other. 



With galvanism we appear to be but very little acquaint- 

 ed ; we are shown lis poaerfal effects in burning substances, 

 which were before supposed uninflammable} we have exhi- 

 bited to us the powerlul effects it has upon tlie \'ital animal 

 fibre, but no one has attempted to explain the causes of these 

 effects J the cultivators of it apj.ear to have explored in the 

 dark, making numerous experiments, and wondering at their 

 results at the beginning of an experiment, unknowing what 

 to expect ; and, having finished it, unable to nccount for the 

 change : like the practice of the empirics of lAA, who were 

 employed in obtaining experience by actual observation only, 

 unassisted by reason or theory. If a disease disappeared 

 under the use of a particular remedy, that substance was a 

 cure for the complaint ; if a jer^on wqs affected with 

 purging after swallowing a certain article, that article was 

 set down as of a purgative nature, when perhaps neither of 

 these effects were really caused by the substance emjiloyed, 

 the person recovered by the vires medicatrices 'naturce, and 

 the purging was caused by a substance prepared by the body 

 itself; audit remained for future experience to prove, the 

 fallacy of the unjust account. Just so it is with galvanism, 

 by passing the influence through water, oxigen and hydro- 

 gen gases appear; it is therefore set dov\n as a fact, proved 

 by experience, that galvanism decomposes water; and, if 

 galvanism has the effect of decomposing one substance, and 

 has no effect on anotiier, these circumstances are related in 

 the empirical account, and no one endeavours to seek further 

 into the subject, no one endeavours to explain the causes of 

 these occurrences. 



If I may hazard an opinion, galvanism differs from com- 

 mon electricity in this : in the latter, the influence escapes 

 from one point only, and is thence a compound matter ; but 

 in the former it escapes by different points. I have said be- 

 fo.e, that electric matter is a combination of light and heat 



Vol. XiV.—JuNE, 1S06\ Z in 



