505 



pound of cyanogen and iron, or ferrocyanogen as it exists in the 

 yellow salt, is evolved at the zincode ; and they not only converted 

 the yellow into the red salt by electrolytic action, but, conversely, 

 reproduced the yellow from the red. 



In pui*suing their researches on double salts, a new order of facts 

 was brought to light, which clearly proved that although the two ions 

 of the electrolyte are always evolved in equivalent proportions, yet 

 that they are not transferred in equivalent proportions to the re- 

 spective electrodes ; that some bases, such as copper, zinc, iron and 

 alumina, do not travel at all towards the platinode ; that some, as 

 magnesium, do so in small proportion only; and that others, as 

 barium and potassium, are transferred in greater abundance ; those 

 "whose oxides are most soluble appearing to travel most easily. On 

 the other hand, the acids, whether forming soluble hydrates or not, 

 seem all to travel towards the zincode, in proportions dependent prin- 

 cipally on the nature of the base with which they are united. 



The curious phenomena which have thus been brought to light, 

 concur in establishing the general fact, that the disengagement of the 

 cation and anion of an electrolyte in equivalent proportion is not 

 always affected, as is commonly represented, by their simultaneous 

 transfer in opposite directions to their respective electrodes, in the 

 exact proportion of half an equivalent of each ; but that it is some- 

 times brought about by the transfer of a whole equivalent of the anion 

 to the zincode, whereby a whole equivalent of the cation is left un- 

 combined at the platinode, or by the transfer of unequivaleut portions 

 of each in opposite directions, making together a whole equivalent 

 of matter transferred either to one electrode or to the other ; or, in 

 other words, by the transfer of a quantity of matter capable of ex- 

 ercising one equivalent of chemical force : so that when the anion 

 transferred to the zincode exceeds half an equivalent, the cation trans- 

 ferred to the platinode is, in an equal proportion, less than half an 

 equivalent, and vice versa ; the anion and cation set free being always 

 in equivalent proportions. In no case, however, has there been ob- 

 served the transfer of a whole equivalent of the cation to the exclu- 

 sion of the anion. 



These facts, the authors' conceive, are irrecoucileable with any of 

 the molecular hypotheses which have been hitherto imagined to ex- 

 plain the phenomena of electrolysis. 



March 21, 184i. 



The MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 



''A description of certain Belemnites, preserved, with a great pro- 

 portion of their soft parts, in the Oxford clay at Christian Malford, 

 Wilts." By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., &c., Hunterian Professor 

 of Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal College 0/ Surgeons. 



The author describes, in the present paper, specimens of Belemnite, 

 discovered in the Oxford-clay at Christian Malford, \Yilts, and 



