88 



THE DECOMPOSITION OF WATER. 



decomposed in each receiver, and no transmission of iti 

 elements, in opposite currents, through the connecting wire, 

 can be supposed to liave happened : neither is there any 

 ground for considering water as a simple body, but a com- 

 pound of the two elementary substances above stated. 

 The fallacy of By these experiments, then, Mr, Anderson has succeeded 

 Kilter's state- ■ dgtectinor the fallacy in Ritter's experiment, and the 

 rient :.lready « . f / r • , 



shown by Mr. consequent errours in the conclusion drawn from it; but, 

 Murray. f,.yjjj fjyt being acquainted with what has been done by 



others, he is not correct in the observation, that " no person 

 *' appears to have suspected the accuracy of Ritter's state- 

 ** ment, or even to have repeated his experiments with any 

 *' degree of care". The truth is, this philosopher's ex- 

 periment was repeated more than twelve months ago by Mr. 

 Murray, and the fallacy of his statement completely de- 

 tected. 

 Hk account I" his Elements of Chemistry, published in October, 



•f '^- 1810, , Mr. Murray (vol.1, p. 308) refers to this experi- 



ment of Ritter, in which, says he, " it is stated, that when 

 *• a wire attached to the positive side of a galvanic battery is 

 *' placed in water in a tube, and a wire from the negative side 

 *♦ is placed in another portion of water in another tube ; and 

 *« when these are connected, not by placing them in a vessel 

 *♦ of water, but in separate vessels connected by a metallic 

 *^ wire; the usual phenomena are produced, and the oxigen 

 *' is evolved at one wire, and the hidrogen at the other". 

 Mr. Murray then goes on to state, that Ritter, conceiving it 

 impossible, that the elements of water could be conveyed 

 through the metallic wire, was led to conclude, that " the 

 ** communication merely of positive and negative electricity 

 " to water caused it to assume these gaseous forms. Were 

 *• the fact as it i^ stated," continues Mr. Murray, " the 

 *' conclusion would perhaps follow. I have found, howr 

 *' ever, that it is a mere deception. The connecting wire 

 *' becomes a galvanic one, and its two extremities hecom- 

 «' ing electrical, by what electricians have denominated 

 ** position or induction, are in states of electricity the re- 

 *' verse of the galvanic wires in the tubes; and hence oxi- 

 " gen and hidrogen are evolved at their extremities, corre- 

 , ♦♦ sponding with the hidrogen and oxigen evolved at the 



" other* J 



