chemical Agencies of Electricity. 47 
oxide of zinc to be formed more rapidly, and in larger quan- 
tities. Neutrosaline solutions which are at first very active, 
loose their energy in proportion as their acid arranges itself 
on the side of the zinc, and their alkali on that of the copper ; 
and I have found the powers of a combination nearly de- 
stroyed from this cause very much revived, merely by agi- 
tating the fluids in the cells and mixing their parts together. 
Diluted acids, which are themselves easily decomposed, or 
which assist the decomposition of water, are above all other 
substances powerful ; for they dissolve the zinc, and furnish 
only a gaseous product to the negative surface, which is imme- 
diately disengaged. 
There are other experiments connected with very striking 
results, which offer additional reasons for supposing the de- 
composition of the chemical menstrua essential to the conti- 
nued electromotion in the pile. 
As when an electrical discharge is produced by means of 
small metallic surfaces in the Voltaic battery, (the opposite 
states being exalted,) sensible heat is the consequence, it 
occurred to me, that if the decomposition of the chemical 
agents was essential to the balance of the opposed electricities, 
the effect, in a saline solution, of this decomposition, and of the 
transfer of the alkali to the negative side, and of the acid to 
the positive side, ought, under favourable circumstances, to be 
connected with an increase of temperature. 
I placed the gold cones, which have been so often men- 
tioned, in the circuit of the battery with the power of too, I 
filled them with distilled water, and connected them by a 
piece of moistened asbestus, about an inch in length and | of 
an inch diameter; I provided a small air-thermometer capable 
