I884.J 
Analyses of Books. 
359 
Thoughts on the Interdependence of Water and Electricity , and 
Cognate Subjects. By William Boggett. London : 
Ridgway. 
If Mr. Boggett is right our physics and our chemistry will have 
to be re-constituted, almost from the very beginning. Electri- 
city, we are told, is not a form of energy, but a kind of matter. 
Water is a compound, not of hydrogen and oxygen alone, but of 
these plus electricity. Such assertions could only be established 
by very definite experimental evidence. Such evidence the 
author does not, as we understand him, bring forward. He 
writes : — “ It is inconceivable that any mere mixture of two 
combustible and explosive gases could remain unconsumed when 
exposed to intense heat, or, if water is composed of them with- 
out any other admixture, that the hottest fires could be extin- 
guished by their use.” Precisely so ; but no chemist contends 
that water is a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, but a combina- 
tion, which is quite a different thing. Further, oxygen, per se, 
is neither combustible nor explosive. He writes further, “ there 
is no proof that eleCtricity is not in water.” This is a perfectly 
illegitimate line of argument. 
We read further : — “ As ice floats upon it [water] , and conse- 
quently is lighter than water, it must have lost some ponderable 
matter. It had parted with its oxygen, that being eight times 
heavier than the hydrogen, and likewise with the eleCtricity, 
which is not present in ice.” Here the reader will perceive a 
collection of errors. Ice is specifically lighter than water, and 
floats upon it just as solid tin floats upon melted tin — not be- 
cause it has lost any ponderable matter, but because it has 
expanded during freezing. The proof of such expansion is known 
to every one. If water loses ponderable matter in freezing, then 
a pound of water, if converted into ice, would weigh less than a 
pound, which has never been observed. The author, further, if 
we understand him aright, says that water in freezing parts with 
its oxygen, — an assertion perfectly unsupported by experiments. 
Had it done so it would not become ice. 
Mr. Boggett contends that water is necessary to the production 
of an eleCtric current. What, then, of the thermo-eleCtric bat- 
tery, and of the dynamo-machine, now recognised as the most 
economical source of eleCtricity ? 
We by no means assert that the orthodoxies of Science are 
placed beyond question. But whoever comes forward to refute 
them should at least have given them a careful study, and under- 
stand clearly what he is attacking. Now the author formally 
admits that he knows “ next to nothing of chemistry.” 
