chemical Agencies of Electricity. 17 
I thought it right, however, to make one experiment of this 
kind, for the sake of removing every possibility of doubt on 
the source of the different products ; and I selected for this 
purpose glass, as a substance apparently insoluble in water, 
and not likely to afford in any way erroneous results. 
The balance that I employed was made for the Royal 
Institution, by Mr. Fidler, after the model of that belonging 
to the Royal Society; it turns readily with of a grain 
when loaded with 100 grains on each side ; a glass tube with 
a platina wire attached, weighing 84, grains was con- 
nected with an agate cup, by amianthus ; they were filled with 
purified water, and electrified by a power from 250 pairs of 
plates, in such a way that the platina in the glass tube was 
negative. The process was continued for 4 days, when the 
water was found alkaline. It gave by evaporation and expo- 
sure to a heat of about 400° Fahrenheit, soda mixed with a 
white powder insoluble in acids, the whole weight of which 
was of a grain. The glass tube carefully cleaned and dried 
weighed 84 grains, T 3 - 7 ¥ . The difference between the loss of 
weight of the tube and the weight of the products in the water 
may be easily explained : some minute detached particles of ami- 
anthus were present, and the soda must have contained water, 
a substance which it is probably perfectly free from in glass. 
Having obtained such results with regard to the disengage- 
ment of the saline parts of bodies insoluble in water, I made 
a number of experiments on soluble compounds ; their de- 
composition was always much more rapid, and the phseno- 
mena perfectly distinct. 
In these processes I employed the agate cups with platina 
wires, connected by amianthus moistened in pure water; tlie 
mdcccvii. D 
