qA 6v electro-chemical 1)ECOMPOS1TIOM. 



legitimate conclusion, according to the principles of flwy' 

 Action of the received theory. From the first expevioients with the Vol- 

 Voltaic battery j^j ^atterv, it has been an acknowledged fact, that the 



repeated at •' ' , i . • . 



c»ery inter- chemical changes, produced between two wires in any 

 rupnonoftlie fl^jij^ in one vessel, wil! be repeated in any nnniber of such 

 vessels connected together; provided the [tower of the bat* 

 tery is proportioned to tiie extent of the interrupted circuit. 

 Such an arrangement was employed (soon after the inven- 

 tion of the battery) by Mr. IVicholson, and also by Mr, 

 Cruickshank, who proposed the connexion of many tubes, 

 as a means of producing a cons.iderable quantity of gas. A 

 similar disposition of the apparatus has been at different 

 periods employed by most electvJcians ; but the connexion 

 of its phenomena with theory h;as been most clearly exenai- 

 Mr. De Luc'« pHed by the experiments of Mr. De Luc, in his analysis of 

 •xperinien s. ^^^ Voltaic pile*. This excelleivt philosopher has investi- 

 gated with just attention the changes that occur when two 

 tubes are employed; he has ascertained the electrical state 

 of the diiFerent wires in the circuiit, and finding the same 

 chemical effects continue, when the wires underwent changes 

 in their electrical states, he concludes, that the chemical ef- 

 fects do not depend on opposite electric energies, but on 

 the passage of the electric fluid from metals to water and 

 from water to metals ; oxigen being evolved in the former 

 case, and hidrogen in the latter. 

 A |)*sitive and In the present state of our knowledge it cannot therefore 



ritgative point be said, " that the important fact of a positive and a nega- 

 at each inter. , ' '. .„,..." 



ru->tion of the ** tive |)0int at evt-ry interruption or the circuit is esta- 



circuit not « blished beyond all doubt." The jexperiment, on which 

 this assertion is founded, is but a repetition of Cruick- 

 shank's arrangement; and proves only, that chemical effects 

 occur ttt every interruption of the metallic circuit. Until 

 these chemical effects are shown to depend on the opposite 

 electric state of the wires> or to be inseparable from such a 

 condition, the existence of such opposite states must be 

 considered as purely hypothetical. 



The effects The experiments of Mr. De Luc appear to me a sufficient 



produced by indication, that the various phenomena of electro-chemical 

 tha circulation . ' . • <> • • i - 



of asin^U analysis are produced by the circulation of a single electnc 



fluid. 



» Soe Journal, vol. XXVI, pp 69, 113, 241. 



fluid; 



