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LIU. On the Electric Conductivity and Electrolysis of Chemical 

 Compounds. By Dr. L. Bleekrode*. 



HITTORF states, as a result of his investigations on elec- 

 trolysis |, that electrolytes are characterized by corre- 

 sponding ions in them being capable of replacing one another. 

 They are consequently salts in the sense attached to the term 

 by modern chemistry ; and during electrolysis exchange takes 

 place between the same constituents of their molecules as in 

 double elective affinity. With the difficulty of this exchange 

 he connects the resistance of the electrolytes to electrical con- 

 duction ; so that on this account water, for example, and 

 prussic acid are such bad conductors. In Magnus's theory J 

 the replaceability of hydrogen by other substances is especially 

 taken into consideration. It therefore appeared to me desi- 

 rable both to test the consequences deduced from Hittorf's 

 experiments and to try whether the presence of hydrogen 

 replaceable in the compound either by metals or atomic groups 

 (radicals) is connected with capability of electrolysis. If so, 

 the latter should be absent when the above-mentioned chemical 

 exchange does not take place. I selected the simplest com- 

 pounds which could be preserved liquid without a solvent : to 

 this category belong, of course, the condensed gases and also 

 a great number of bodies derived from organic chemistry, as, 

 for instance, the organo-metallic radicals, the substitution- 

 products of ammonia, &c. Up to the present time very few 

 organic substances have been thus investigated with respect 

 to their electrolyzability ; and therefore I thought it would 

 not be unimportant to supply this deficiency. 



1. Arrangement of the Experiments. 



The material available for these experiments was rather 

 limited, as I had to select compounds containing either a metal 

 or hydrogen, and which could also be kept in the liquid state, 

 whether directly or by high pressure, as the gases, or by raising 

 their temperature. For the condensed gases it was most con- 

 venient to employ Faraday's method. They were therefore 

 enclosed in stout tubes of glass, into the two ends of which 

 annealed platinum wires were fused to serve as electrodes. 

 One of these traversed the entire length of the tube to within 

 1, 2, or 3 millims. of the other. They were separated by a 

 layer of the liquid ; and by this arrangement conduction along 

 the glass was almost entirely prevented. The other substances, 



* Communicated by the Author. 



t Pogg. Ann. vol. cvi. 1852. \ Ibid. vol. cii. 1857. 



