electrical and chemical changes. 41 3 
water ; yet even in this instance the water had become 
slightly alkaline at one pole, and acid at the other. 
These experiments, showing the nature of the chemical 
changes in combinations made active by their connexion with 
Voltaic batteries, and the influence of the newly developed 
chemical agents, fully explain the phenomena of the secon- 
dary piles of M. Ritter ; and combined with the fact, that 
the metals are not perfect conductors for electricities of very 
low intensity, they offer a simple and adequate solution of 
the circumstances observed by M. De La Rive on the inter- 
position of different metallic plates in the fluids connecting 
together Voltaic combinations.* 
From the nature of the chemical changes taking place in 
each single circle of a common Voltaic battery, it is evident, 
that if any small part of a battery for some time in action, is 
separated from the whole, and made to act as a distinct com- 
bination, its powers must be feebler than if it had been ori- 
ginally an independent series ; for the electrical action occa- 
sioned by the chemical agents developed in it, are such as to 
counteract the effects produced by the contact of the metals. 
Whereas, if a small Voltaic series is connected with a much 
larger one, in reverse order, its oxidable in the place of the 
noble metals, though the whole power of the combination is 
much weakened by it when in union ; yet, when separated, 
it must act with much greater power, as the chemical 
changes produced are exactly of the kind which must enhance 
the primary power of the metals. This deduction (a neces- 
sary consequence of the electro-chemical theory) I have 
* Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Tom, xxviii. p. 190. 
MDCCCXXVI. 3 H 
