2 Messrs. J. H. Gladstone and A. Tribe on the [Mar. 1, 



Thomas Bevill Peacock, M.D., 



F.K.as. 



"William Overend Priestley, M.D., 



E.E.C.P. 

 Charles Bland Eadcliffe, M.D., 



e.e.c.p. 



Prof. Osborne Eeynolds, M.A., C.E. 

 Samuel Eoberts, M.A. 

 William Eoberts, B.A., M.D. 

 George P. Eodwell, P.EA.S., 

 E.C.S. 



George John Eomanes, M.A. 

 Sir Sidney Smith Saunders, C.M.G. 

 Edward A. Schafer, M.E.C.S. 

 Michael Scott, M.Inst.C.E. 



Samuel Sharp, E.G.S., E.S.A. 

 John Spiller, E.C.S. 

 Hermann Sprengel, Ph.D. 

 George James Symons, Sec. M.S. 

 Prof. James Thomson, M.A., LL.D., 

 D.Sc. 



Charles S. Tomes, M.A. 

 Edwin T. Truman, M.E.C.S. 

 Prof. William Turner, M.B., 



M.E.C.S. 

 Thomas Lord Walsingham. 

 Benjamin Williamson, M.A. 

 Prof. John Wilson, E.E.S.E.,E.G.S. 

 Baron Henry de Worms, E.E.A.S. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. iC Note on the Electrolytic Conduction of some Organic 

 Bodies." By J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S., Fullerian 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, and Alfred 

 Tribe, F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry in Dulwich College. 

 Received January 27, 1877. 



During our early researches* on the copper- zinc couple it naturally 

 occurred to. us that we were employing a special means of electrolysis 

 acting at insensible distances ; but the first organic substances which we 

 succeeded in decomposing by means of this agent were such as are 

 usually considered non-electrolytic — for instance, iodide of ethyl ; and 

 we obtained the remarkable result that when some of these were mixed 

 with alcohol they were much more readily decomposed, although pure 

 alcohol itself is not attacked by the couple of dissimilar metals. Erom 

 time to time we experimented with external batteries of 10 or 50 cells 

 of Grove, in order to obtain some direct evidence of the electrolyzability 

 of these compounds in the ordinary way, but with only negative results. 

 On the 26th of April, 1875, however, we made a series of experiments, 

 employing 100 Grove's cells, and obtained results which we did not 

 pursue further at the time, but which we think interesting, especially in 

 connexion with the experiments on other but similar bodies which 

 Dr. Bleekrode has lately communicated to the Eoyal Society, and a short 

 notice of which appears in the last Number of its ' Proceedings/ 



We used for the experiments a glass tube, about 5 millims. diameter, 

 closed at one end, into which were fused two platinum wires, about 



* Proc. Eoy. Soc. 1872, p. 218. Journ. Chem. Soc. 1873, pp. 445, 678, 961 ; 1874, 

 pp. 208, 406, 410, 615; 1875, p. 508. 



