116 MR CONNELL ON THE ACTION OF VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY 



garded as a hydrate of pyroxylic ether, in the same way that alcohol was viewed 

 as a hydrate of sulphuric ether. In my former experiments, I had found that 

 sulphuric ether resisted the action of the most powerful voltaic battery which I 

 had at my command, nor could I discover any substance which, when dissolved, 

 led under voltaic agency to any appearance which countenanced the idea that it 

 contained water, as such, as a constituent ; and I therefore concluded that water, 

 as such, did not enter into its constitution. On those views, the formula of py- 

 roxylic ether will be H^ C^ 0, and that of p}Toxylic spirit H" C^ + H^ 0. In this 

 way no hypothetical radicle is assumed as the basis of which pyroxylic ether is 

 considered as the oxide, the latter being viewed, like sulphuric ether, merely as a 

 ternary combination of its constituent elements.* Neither am I acquainted with 

 any experiment which proves the existence of the hydro-carbon H^ C, as such, in 

 the pyroxylic series, any more than that of the hydro-carbon H* C^ in the alcohol 

 series. Indeed, the former hydro-carbon has not yet been obtained in a separate 

 form in a state of purity, so that even its own existence is still in some measure 

 h3rpothetical. It may be questioned, therefore, whether we have reaUy made much 

 greater progress towards a knowledge of the existence of the hydro-carbon W C 

 in combination as such, in consequence of the discovery of the pyi'oxylic combina- 

 tions, than when we only knew of the sesqui-chloride of Dr Thomson. If we con- 

 tent ourselves with saying, that throughout the pyroxylic series certain elements 

 are substituted for certain other elements throughout the alcohol series, we do 

 little more than express a matter of fact, with scarcely any theory. The ele- 

 ments so substituted appear to me to be 6 atoms of hydrogen and 2 atoms of car- 

 bon in the pyroxylic series, for 10 atoms of hydrogen and 4 atoms of carbon in 

 the alcohol compounds, and the analogy between the two series appears to be 

 nearly as well preserved on this view as on any other. I have in contemplation 

 some voltaic experiments on the compound ethers of both series, which may pos- 

 sibly throw some light on the nature of the combinations. 



11. — Voltaic Action on Aqueous Solutions. 



In my former paper I endeavoured to show that an electric current of suf- 

 ficient intensity to decompose distilled water, did not cause the appearance of 

 chlorine or iodine in aqueous solutions of the corresponding hydracids and haloid 

 salts, where the evolution of oxygen at the positive pole did not actually take 

 place in the solution, but in distilled water connected with that sohition by as- 



* Even should we assume that pyroxylic ether and sulphuric ether unite with acids after the man- 

 ner of bases, this circumstance will not, I conceive, prove them to be oxides, consisting of radicles as 

 such and oxygen, any more than the same circumstance proves the vegetable ali^alies, altliough undoubt- 

 edly bases, to be oxides, or than the circumstance that the vegetable acids unite with alkalies, shews that 

 they consist of radicles and of oxygen. 



