336 Mr Connell on the Action of 



change of elements ; and the antecedent formation of sulphovinic 

 acid, which is now held to consist of sulphuric acid and alcohol, 

 scarcely interferes with the simplicity of this view. 



Strong analogical grounds would undoubtedly be afforded for 

 the same opinion, from the composition of the compound ethers, 

 if we had good reason for holding, with Liebig, that ether is the 

 oxide of an unknown radicle. But the galvanic experiments with 

 ether, seem to me to be rather against that view ; for it would ap- 

 pear that on electro-chemical grounds, such an oxide ought to 

 give way under voltaic agency, by a separation of its electro- 

 positive and electro-negative elements. Of such a separation, 

 however, I obtained no indication whatever. 



It may perhaps, therefore, be safer simply to regard ether as a 

 ternary compound of its elements, and to express its constitution 

 by an empirical formula C 4 H 10 O. Alcohol, on the other hand, 

 may be regarded as a hydrate of ether, and its formula will be 

 C 4 H°0 + H. 



IV. Voltaic Action on Aqueous Solutions. 



In the course of the preceding investigations, I was naturally 

 led into an examination of the nature of the voltaic action on 

 solutions of various acids, alkalies, and salts in water ; my prin- 

 cipal object being to endeavour to distinguish between those 

 cases in which the solvent and those in which the dissolved body 

 was the immediate subject of the voltaic action, and thus to be 

 better able to draw a similar distinction in the case of alcoholic 

 solutions. In this inquiry, I was of course necessarily led to 

 examine many of those experimental results and conclusions 

 which have been unfolded by Mr Faraday, in his interesting 

 series of electrical researches ; and therefore I may be pardoned 

 for stating such views as have occurred to me on this part of the 

 subject, seeing that I did not gratuitously enter upon it, but was 



