ON THE DECOMPOSITION OF WATER. S7 



Fig. 12, rs, shows the spring, by which the floiver is 

 opened and shut, as it is when twisted. By pressing t r, 

 fig. 10, the flower is opened ; vv are the nectaries, which 

 increase the strength of the flower. I shall give the sta- 

 mens and pistil, when I show the mechanism of the parts, 

 which will prove how much the wood vessels nn contri- 

 bute to the management of the flower by the interior 

 drawing of the spiral wire. 



II. 



Remarks on Mr. Anderson's £xpmwm^5 ** On the Decom' 

 position of Water in two or more separate Vessels", with 

 an Account of Mr, Murray's Experiments on the sanfte 

 Subject. 



To W. NICHOLSON, Esq. 

 SIR, 



Ji-N the number of your Journal for November I have read Inferewce* 

 with much pleasure some experiments on the « decom- ^^"^""^ ^^? f'^ 

 position of water, in two or more separate vessels," by Mr. waTerin'sepat 

 Anderson of Perth. They were professedly made to correct rate vessels: 

 an inference drawn from an experiment of Ritter, the re- 

 sult of which led some persons to suppose, that the elements 

 «f water could be transmitted, in opposite currents, through 

 the substance of a metallic wire; while others, unwillino- to 

 admit the permeability of metallic matter by gaseous bodies, 

 were disposed, from this experiment, to doubt altogether 

 the commonly received opinion with respect to the com- 

 pound nature of water. 



Mr. Anderson first repeated the experiment of Ritter, and Both oxigen 



found, that water was decomposed in the manner that had^"*^ hidrogei> 

 V , ^ , J , • P , ' found in each. 



been stated ; and employing afterward an apparatus, in which 



all the gaseous products could be collected, he likewise 

 ascertained, that, they consisted not of oxigen only in one 

 receiver, and of hidrogen in the other, as Ritter had sup- 

 posed ; *« but these two substances were found in each re- 

 ** eeiver, in the exact proportion in which they combine 

 «* togethex to form water". Consequently, water had been 



decomposed 



