i8 
Mr. Davy’s Lecture on some 
solutions were introduced into the cups, and the electrifying 
power applied from batteries of 50 pairs of plates, in the 
usual way. 
A diluted solution of sulphate of potash treated in this 
manner, produced in four hours at the negative wire a weak 
lixivium of potash ; and a solution of sulphuric acid at the 
positive wire. 
The phenomena were similar when sulphate of soda, nitrate 
of potash, nitrate of barytes, sulphate of ammonia, phosphate 
of soda, succinate oxalate, and benzoate of ammonia, and alum 
were used. The acids in a certain time collected in the tube 
containing the positive wire, and the alkalies and earths in 
that containing the negative wire. 
Solutions of the muriatic salts, decomposed in the same 
way, uniformly gave oxymuriatic acid on the positive side. 
When compatible mixtures of neutrosaline solutions con- 
taining the common mineral acids were used, the different acids 
and the different bases seemed to separate together in a mixed 
state, without any respect to the orders of affinity. 
When metallic solutions were employed, metallic crystals 
or depositions were formed, as in common Galvan ip expe- 
riments, on the negative wire, and oxide was likewise depo- 
sited round it ; and a great excess of acid was soon found 
in the opposite cup. With solutions of iron, zinc, and tin, 
this effect took place, as well as with the more oxidable 
metals : when muriate of iron was used, the black substance 
deposited upon the wire was magnetic, and dissolved with 
effervescence in muriatic acid ; and when sulphate of zinc 
was used, a gray powder possessed of the metallic lustre, and 
likewise soluble with effervescence, appeared ; and in all 
cases acid in excess was exhibited on the positive side. 
