£22 Electrochemical Researches, &c. 



I venture to hint at these notions : but I do not attach 

 much importance to them; the age of chemistry is not yet 

 sufficiently mature for such discussions ; the more subtile 

 powers of matter are but just beginning to be considered ; 

 and all general views concerning them must as yet rest upon 

 feeble and imperfect foundations. 



Whatever be the fate of the speculative part of the inquiry. 

 the facts however will, T hope, admit of many applications, 

 and explain some phaenomena in nature. 



The metals of the earths cannot exist at the surface of the 

 globe, but it is very possible that they may form a part of 

 the interior ; and such an assumption would offer a theorv for 

 the phamomeua of volcanos, the formation of lavas, and the 

 excitement and effects of subterraneous heat*, and would 

 probably lead to a general hypothesis in geology. 



are more oxidable tlian the simple substances that compose them. SuIphureC 

 of iron at common temperatures decomposes water with facility, whereas sul- 

 phur under the same circumstance**, has no action on water, and iron a very 

 small owe. The compound of phosphorus and hydrogen is more inflammable 

 than cither of its constituents. 



Should a new theory of the dependence of the chemical forms of matter 

 upon electrical powers be established, the facts belonging to ammonium would 

 admit of a more easy solution. Ammonium might be supposed to be a simple 

 body, which by combining with dilTerent quantities of water, and in different 

 states of electricity, formed nitrogen, ammonia, atmospherical air, nitrous 

 oxide, nitrous gas, and nitric acid. 



Water, on this idea, must be supposed a constituent part of all the different 

 gases; but iis electricities in oxygen and hydrogen would probably be the 

 very reverse of what they have been supposed by M. Ritter, and some inge- 

 nious English inquirers. 



Water positively electrified would be hydrogen, water negatively electri- 

 fied, oxygen ; and as in the j'fcysical experiments of temperature, ice, added 

 to certain quantities of steam, "y an equilibrium of heat produces water, so 

 in the chemical experiment of the generation of water the positive and nega- 

 ti\e electricity of oxygen and hydrogen in certain proportions would annihi- 

 late each other, and water alone he the result. At all events ammonium, 

 whether simple or compound, must be considered as owing its attraction for 

 oxvgen to its highly positive electrical state, which is shown by its powerful 

 determination to the negative surface in the Voltaic circuit. 



* Let it be assumed that the metals of the earths and alkalis, in alloy with 

 common metals, exist in large quantities beneath the surface, then their ac- 

 cidental exposure to the action of air and water must produce the effect 

 of subterranean fire, and a product of earthy and stony matter analogous to~ 

 Livas. 



The 



