Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Sfc. 319 



lar appearance was observed in certain other equally singular cir- 

 cumstances. If, after the action had been going on for a few 

 minutes in a glass or porcelain vessel, the poles being of platinum 

 foil, the action was stopped by removing one of the wires from the 

 battery, and when gas had ceased to come, the poles were rever- 

 sed, the foil which before had been negative being made positive, 

 and the former positive made negative, then a few bubbles arose 

 for a minute or two from the positive foil, with the usual effer- 

 vescence from the negative ; and this might be repeated, after a 

 sufficient interval, as often as was thought proper. The only ex- 

 planation I can offer of these curious appearances is, that the 

 negative foil, when suddenly made positive, still retains for a 

 short time some portion of its former negative character, and 

 therefore exerts a kind of repulsive action on the electro-negative 

 substance the oxygen, at the very time when the electric current 

 is determining its passage to the positive side of the pile. The 

 action of the metallic vessels seems more difficult to explain, the 

 property being possessed as well by electro-positive metals as by 

 those of an electro-negative character ; but probably depends on 

 some peculiar electric influence exercised on the constituents of 

 the alcohol, by which they are rendered less disposed to combine 

 with the nascent oxygen. 



These different modifications of the phenomena do not, how- 

 ever, I conceive, affect the constant nature of the action. The 

 evolution of hydrogen from the negative pole is invariable, and 

 the determination of oxygen to the positive pole I apprehend to 

 be equally so, the only variation being in the circumstance of its 

 being visible or not. 



Before, however, attempting to develope this view farther, I 

 wish to state the electric action on alcohol, holding small quan- 

 tities of other bodies than potash in solution, and on pure alcohol. 



I found that similar quantities of several other substances, 

 soluble in alcohol, produced analogous effects to potash. Thus, 

 when small quantities of chloride of calcium, of nitrate of lime, 



