11 
chemical Agencies of Electricity. 
having the properties of nitrous acid was not produced, and 
the longer the operation the greater was the quantity that 
appeared. 
Volatile alkali likewise seemed to be always formed in very 
minute portions, during the first few minutes in the purified 
water in the gold cones, but the limit to its quantity was soon 
attained. 
It was natural to account for both these appearances, from the 
combination of nascent oxygene and hydrogene respectively; 
with the nitrogene of the common air dissolved in the water : 
and Dr. Priestley’s experiments on the absorption of gases 
by water (on this idea) would furnish an easy explanation of 
the causes of the constant production of the acid, and the 
limited production of the alkali: for hydrogene, during its 
solution in water, seems to expel nitrogene ; whilst nitrogene 
and oxygene are capable of co-existing dissolved in that fluid.* 
To render the investigation more complete, I introduced the 
two cones of gold with purified water under the receiver of 
an air pump ; the receiver was exhausted till it contained only 
•g—- of the original quantity of air; and then, by means of a 
convenient apparatus, the tubes were connected with an active 
Voltaic pile of 50 pairs of plates of 4 inches square. The 
processs was carried on for 18 hours, when the result was 
examined. The water in the negative tube produced no effect 
upon prepared litmus, but that in the positive tube gave it a 
barely perceptible tinge of red. 
An incomparably greater quantity of acid would have been 
formed in a similar time in the atmosphere, and the small 
* Priestley’s Experiments and Observations, Vol. I. page 59. 
C 2 
