PHILOSOPHICAL 
TRANSACTIONS. 
I. The Bakerian Lecture, on some chemical Agencies of Electricity . 
By Humphry Davy, Esq . F. R. S. M. R . I. A. 
Read November 20, 1806. 
1. Introduction. 
The chemical effects produced by electricity have been for 
some time objects of philosophical attention ; but the novelty 
of the phenomena, their want of analogy to known facts, and 
the apparent discordance of some of the results, have involved 
the enquiry in much obscurity. 
An attempt to elucidate the subject will not, I hope, be 
considered by the Society as unfitted to the design of the 
Bakerian Lecture. I shall have to detail some minute (and I 
fear tedious) experiments; but they were absolutely essential 
to the investigation. I shall likewise, however, be able to offer 
some illustrations of appearances which hitherto have not 
been fully explained, and to point out some new properties 
of one of the most powerful and general of material agents. 
f MDCCCVII. B 
