the Decomposition of the Earths, &c. 221 



Other hypotheses might be formed upon the new electro- 

 chemical facts, in which still fewer elements than those al- 

 lowed in the antiphlogistic or phlogistic theory might be 

 maintained. Certain electrical states always coincide with 

 certain chemical states of bodies. Thus acids are uniformly 

 negative, alkalis positive, and inflammable substances high- 

 ly positive ; and, as I have found, acid matters when posi- 

 tively electrified, and alkaline matters when negatively 

 electrified, seem to lose all their peculiar properties and 

 powers of combination. In these instances the chemical 

 qualities are shown to depend upon the electrical powers ; 

 and it is not impossible that matter of the same kind, pos- 

 sessed of different electrical powers, may exhibit different 

 chemical forms *. 



I ven- 



quantity of heat, which ought (on the common theory of capacity for heat") to 

 be carried off by this light inflammable gas. 



Potassium burns in carbonic acid, and precipitates charcoal from it ; 

 whereas hydrogen electrized with carbonic acid, converts it into gaseous oxide 

 of carbon. 



Potash has a very slight attraction for phosphorus ; but potassium has a 

 very strong affinity for it, so as to separate it from hydrogen, and according 

 to M. M. Gay Lussac and Thenard, with the phenomena of inflammation. 

 Potash has no affinity for arsenic, yet from the cxperimentsof these gentlemen, 

 it appears that potassium separates arsenic from arseniated hydrogen ; and 

 hydrogen, which is supposed by them to exist in both compounds, can have 

 no affinity for hydrogen, nor can hydrogen in one form, be supposed capable 

 of separating arsenic from hydrogen in another form. 



Could not the experiment of M. M.Gay Lussac and Thenard he explained, 

 except on the supposition of the hydrogen being derived from the potassium, 't 

 would be a distinct fact in favour of the revival of the theory of phlogiston. 

 It would not prove, however, that potassium is composed of hydrogen and 

 potash, but that it is composed of hydrogen and^n unknown baifc ; and that 

 potash is this basis united to water. 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1807. Part I. p. 23. The amalgam obtained 

 from ammonia offers difficulties to both the phlogistic and antiphlogistic hy- 

 potheses. If we assume the phlogistic hypothesis, then we must assume that 

 nitrogen, by combining with one-fourth of its weight of hydrogen, can form 

 an alkali, and by combining with one twelfth more, can become metallic. If 

 we reason on the antiphlogistic hypothesis, we must assert', that though ni- 

 trogen has a weaker affinity for oxygen than hydrogen, yet a compound of 

 hydrogen and nitrogen is capable of decomposing water. 



The first assumption is however by far the most contradictory to the order 

 of common chemical facts • the last, though it cannot be wholly removed, is 

 yet lessened by analogies. Thus alloys in general, and inflammable compounds, 



are 



