chemical Agencies of Electricity. <g 
containing them, though acted on for a great length of time 
with a very strong power, at last produced no effect upon 
solution of nitrate of silver. 
In cases when I had procured mucli soda, the glass at its 
point of contact with the wire seemed considerably corroded ; 
and I was confirmed in my idea of referring the production 
of the alkali principally to this source, by finding that no 
fixed saline matter could be obtained, by electrifying distilled 
water in a single agate cup from two points of platina con- 
nected with the Voltaic battery. Similar conclusions with 
regard to the appearance of the muriatic acid had been formed 
by the Galvanic Society of Paris, by Dr. Wollaston, who 
hit upon the happy expedient of connecting the tubes together 
by well washed asbestus ; and by M. M. Biot and Tlienard.* 
Mr. Sylvester, however, in a Paper published in Mr. 
Nicholson's Journal for last August, states, that though no 
fixed alkali or muriatic acid appears when a single vessel is 
employed ; yet that they are both formed when two vessels 
are used. And to do away all objections with regard to 
vegetable substances or glass, he conducted his process in a 
vessel made of baked tobacco-pipe clay inserted in a crucible 
of platina. I have no doubt of the correctness of his results .* 
but the conclusion appears objectionable. He conceives that 
he obtained fixed alkali, because the fluid after being heated 
and evaporated left a matter that tinged turmeric brown, 
which would have happened had it been lime, a substance 
that exists in considerable quantities in all pipe-clay ; and even 
allowing the presence of fixed alkali, the materials employed 
for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes are not at all such as 
to exclude the combinations of this substance. 
* No. XL. Du Moniteur , 1806. 
B 2 
