«N GALVANIC PHENOMENA. £?l 



must be abandoned, as untenable. Hoping that the subject 

 will ere long attract the attention of observers in earnest, 

 and be fully elucidated, 



I remain, sir, 



Your obedient humble servant, 



J. FAREY, 



Westminster y July 2, 1812. 



VII. 



On Galvanic phenomena. In a Letter from J.ADe Luc, 

 Esq, F. R. S. 



To W. NICHOLSON, Esq. 

 Sir, 



IR Maycock's papers in your Journal have much in- p r> MaycocVs 

 terested me, as affording the opportunity of very useful dis- obserrations 

 quisitions on important objects of natural philosophy; they 

 are contained in your Numbers 131 and 144, the former of 

 which will be the subject of my present remarks. 



This paper has the following title : Observations on the on t ^ t ^f^ 

 hypothesis, which refers chemical affinities to the electrical ence of 'chemi- 

 energies of the particles of metals : an hypothesis introduced etecfricafLt- 

 by Sir H. Davy in a lecture to the Royal Society in 1807. ^87* 

 The paper of Dr. Maycock (as mentioned in a note) had 

 before (deservedly) obtained the gold medal of the Medical 

 Society of Edinburgh, on this question : " Whether are the 

 '* phenomena produced in the decomposition of bodies by 

 *' galvanism capable of being explained by the usual princi- 

 «* pies of chemical attraction ; or do they seem to establish 

 " the theory, that chemical phenomena depend entirely on 

 ** the electrical energies of the particles of matter." 



I had already, Sir, refuted this last hypothesis almost a Complete re- 

 year before, in your Journal for June 1810, by the analysis futationsofth* 

 of the phenomena of the galvanic pile; but Dr. Maycoek has yp esi$ ' 

 more deeply treated this subject in the first two sections of 

 his paper, proving irresistibly, by direct chemical experi- 

 ments, that they could not be referred to electrical energies. 

 And indeed Sir H. Davy himself has since expressed some 

 doubts on his own theory. 



But 



