414 Mr. Henry’s Experiments cn 
1. Carbonated hydrogenous gas, in its ordinary state, is 
permanently dilated by the electric shock to more than twice 
its original volume ; and as light inflammable air is the 
only substance we are acquainted with, that is capable of 
occasioning so great an expansion, and of exhibiting the 
phenomena that appear on firing the electrified gas with 
oxygen, we may ascribe the dilatation to the production of 
hydrogenous gas. 
2. The hydrogenous gas evolved by this process does not 
arise from the decomposition of charcoal ; because the same 
quantity of that substance is contained in the gas after, as 
before electrization. 
3. The hydrogenous gas proceeds from decomposed water ; 
because when this fluid is abstracted as far as possible from 
the carbonated hydrogenous gas, before submitting it to the 
action of electricity, the dilatation cannot be extended beyond 
one-sixth its usual amount. 
4,. The deccmponent of the water is not a metallic sub- 
stance, because carbonated hydrogenous gas is expanded 
when in contact only with a glass tube and gold, a metal 
which has no power of separating water into its formative 
principles. 
5. The oxygen of the water (when the electric fluid is 
passed through carbonated hydrogenous gas, that holds this 
substance in solution), combines w 7 ith the carbon, and forms 
carbonic acid. This production of carbonic acid, therefore, 
adds to the dilatation occasioned by the evolution of hydro- 
genous gas. 
6 . There is not, by the action of the electric matter on car- 
bonated hydrogenous gas, any generation of azotic gas. 
