152 On the Decomposition and Composition 



In these eases the water might possibly have interfered. 

 Other experiments gave however more distinct results. 



Barvtes and strontites, even when heated to intense white- 

 ness, in the electrical circuit by a flame supported by oxygen 

 gas, are non-conductors ; but by means of combination with 

 a very small quantity of boracic acid, they become conduc- 

 tors j and in this case inflammable matter, which burns with 

 a deep red light in each instance, is produced from them at 

 the negative surface. The high temperature has prevented 

 the success of attempts to collect this substance; but there 

 is much reason to believe that it is the basis of the alkaline 

 earth employed. 



Barytes and strontites have the strongest relations to the 

 fixed alkalis of any of the earthy bodies*; but there is a 

 chain of resemblances, through lime, magnesia, glucina, 

 alumina, and silex. And by the agencies of batteries suffi- 

 ciently strong, and by the application of proper circum- 

 stances, there is no small reason to hope, that even these 

 refractory bodies will yield their elements to the methods of 

 analysis by electrical attraction and repulsion. 



In the electrical circuit we have a regular series of powers, 

 of decomposition from an intensity of action, so feeble asj 

 scarcely to destroy the weakest affinity existing between the 

 parts of a saline neutral compound, to one sufficiently ener- 

 getic to separate elements in the strongest degree of union, 

 \u bodies undecomposable under other circumstances. 



When the powers are feeble, acids and alkalis, and acids 

 and metallic oxides, merely separate from each other ; when 

 tbey are increased to a certain degree, the common metallic 

 oxides and the compound acids are decomposed ; and, by 

 means still more exalted, the alkalis yield their elements, 



* The similarity between the properties of earths and metallic oxides was 

 noticed in the early periods of chemistry. The poisonous nature of barytes, 

 and the great specific gravity of this substance as well as ^f strontites, led 

 Lavoisier to the conjecture that they were of a metallic nature. That metafe 

 existed in the fixed alkalis seems however never to have been suspected. From 

 their analogy to ammonia, nitrogen and hydrogen have been supposed to be 

 amongst their elements. It is singular, with regard to this class of bodies,, 

 that those most unlike metallic oxides are the first which have been demon* 

 strated to be such. 



And 



