chemical Agencies of Electricity. 9 
I had the pleasure of finding the results precisely the 
same. 
To detail any more operations of this kind will be unne- 
cessary ; all the facts prove that the fixed alkali is not gene- 
rated, but evolved, either from the solid materials employed, 
or from saline matter in the water. 
I have made many experiments in vessels composed of 
different substances, with the water procured by very slow 
distillation : and in almost every instance some fixed alkali 
appeared. 
In tubes of wax the alkaline matter was a mixture of soda 
and potash ; and the acid matter a mixture of sulphuric, 
muriatic, and nitric acids. 
In a tube of resin, the alkaline matter seemed to be princi- 
pally potash. 
A cube of Carrara marble of about an inch, having an aper- 
ture in its centre, was placed in a crucible of platina, which 
was filled as high as the upper surface of the cube with the 
purified water, the aperture was filled with the same fluid ; 
the crucible was positively electrified by a strong Voltaic 
power, and a negatively electrified wire introduced into the 
aperture. 
The water soon gained the property of affecting the tint of 
turmeric ; and fixed alkali and lime were both obtained from 
it: and this effect took place in repeated experiments: the fixed 
alkali, however, diminished in quantity every time ; and after 
eleven processes conducted from two to three hours each, 
disappeared altogether. The production of lime-water was 
uniform. 
I made a solution of 500 grains of this marble in nitric 
MDcccvir. C 
