80S Electrochemical Researches on 



upon the glass and the earths, and a grayish t>paque mass 

 not possessed of metallic splendour was obtained, which 

 effervesced in water, depositing white clouds. Here it was 

 possible that the potash had been converted wholly or partly 

 into protoxide, by its action upon the earths ; but as no 

 globule was obtained, and as the plate glass alone might 

 have produced ihe effect, no decided inference of the de- 

 composition of the earths can be drawn from the process. 



I shall now mention the last trials that I made with re- 

 spect to this object. 



Potassium, amalgamated with about one-third of mer- 

 cury, was electrified negatively under naphtha, in contact 

 with silex very slightly moistened, by the power of five hun- 

 dred ; after an hour the result was examined. The potas- 

 sium was made to decompose water, and the alkali formed 

 neutralized by acetous acid ; a white matter, having all the 

 appearance of silex precipitated, but in quantity too small 

 for accurate examination. 



I tried the same method of action upon alumine and glu- 

 . cine, and obtained a cloudiness, more distinct than in the 

 case of silex, by the action of an acid upon the solution ob- 

 tained from the amalgam. 



Zircone exposed in the same manner to the action of elec- 

 tricity, and the attraction of potassium, furnished still more 

 satisfactory results ; for a white and fine powder, soluble in 

 sulphuric acid, and which was precipitated from sulphuric 

 acid by ammonia, separated from the amalgam that had been 

 obtained, by the action of water. 



From the general tenor of these results, and the compari- 

 son between the different series of experiments, there seems 

 very great reason to conclude that alumine, zircone, glu- 

 cine, and silex are, like the alkaline earths, metallic oxides, 

 for on no other supposition is it easy to explain the pheno- 

 mena that have been detailed. 



The evidences of decomposition and composition are not, 

 however, of the same strict nature as those that belom>- to 

 the fixed alkalis and alkaline earths ; for it is possible, that 

 in the experiments in which the silex, alumine, and zircone, 

 appeared to separate during the oxidation of potassium and 



sodium t. 



