38 5 
electrical and chemical changes. 
action exists in organized Nature,” * and Winterl’s “ Prolu- 
siones ad Chemiam Sasculi decimi noni,” will find nothing to 
justify this opinion. Ritter's work contains some very in- 
genious and original experiments on the formation and powers 
of single galvanic circles ; and Winterl's some bold, though 
loose speculative views-f upon the primary causes of chemical 
phenomena : and in the obscurity of the language and meta- 
physics of both these Gentlemen, it is difficult to say what may 
not be found. In the ingenious, though wild views, and often 
inexact experiments of Ritter, there are more hints which 
may be considered as applying to electro-magnetism than to 
electro-chemistry; and Winterl's miraculous “ Andronia ,y 
might, with as much propriety, be considered as a type of 
all the chemical substances that have been since discovered, 
as his view of the antagonist powers, the acid and basic, can 
be regarded as an anticipation of the electro-chemical theory. 
The queries of Newton at the end of his “ Optics” contain 
more grand and speculative views that might be brought to 
bear upon this question than any found in the works of mo- 
dern electricians ; J but it is very unjust to the experimentalists 
* Jena, 1800. 
f As a specimen of the Prolusiones, I shall give a few articles from the Index, 
which will show the character of the work. Prolusiones, pag. 256, et seq. 
256. “ Adamas est Andronia. 
260. “ Andronia cum Plumbo creat Barytam, cum Ferro Chalybem. 
262. “ Carbo est acidus cum Atmosphaera basica. 
263. “ Chromium non est nisi Calx Magnesii acida. 
. “ Cuprum cum Andronik coalescit in Molybdaenum. 
268. «* Scintilla electrica formatur a Principiis Conductorem primum et secundum 
animantibus, ac inter se concurrentibus ; est gravis, habet effectum electricitati 
contrarium.” 
t See the eloquent observations of Mr. Chjsnevix on the subject of Wintbrl’s 
Theory, Annales de Chim. Vol. 50, 2 Cap. 175. 
