PROFESSOR DANIELL ON THE ELECTROLYSIS OF SECONDARY COMPOUNDS. 223 
Nevertheless the oxalate must be looked upon as an oxalion of ammonium, 
(C + 4 O) + (N + 4 H) 
and the production of the carbonic acid as a secondary effect. 
I am inclined to believe that the discovery of a mode of electrolyzing any of the 
numerous combinations of hydrocarbon, so as to isolate that principle or carbon, 
would tend more to advance our knowledge of organic compounds than any other 
single step which could be taken ; and I was not without hopes that the sulpho-vinates 
might afford some indications which might lead to such a process. 
Experiment 43. — I therefore subjected some pure sulpho-vinate of potassa, for 
which I was indebted to the kindness of Mr. Hennel, to the action of the voltaic 
current in the double diaphragm cell. It proved to be a very good conductor, and 
the results were not ambiguous. Sulphovinic acid and oxygen were collected at the 
zincode, and potassa and hydrogen, all in equivalent proportions, clearly establishing 
this salt as a sulphovinion of potassium. 
Permit me, now, before I close this letter, to make a few observations upon a sub- 
ject which strikes me as closely connected with the compound electrolytes upon which 
I have dwelt at such length ; I mean the origin of the currents in Becquerel’s bat- 
tery. I never could bring myself to believe that the mere combination of the acid 
and alkali could give rise to such a current, and have always thought that you have 
abundantly proved its impossibility. And yet there is now a mode of viewing such a 
combination, which I think may explain the phenomena. 
Experiment 44. — I have carefully repeated and varied the experiments, for the pur- 
pose of possessing myself accurately of the facts. I chiefly made use of solutions of 
nitric acid and potassa placed on either side of a diaphragm of bladder in a divided 
glass cell, which could be firmly bound together with brass clamps. Platinum elec- 
trodes were placed on either side of the diaphragm. 
I satisfied myself not only of the usual phenomena with the galvanometer, but that 
oxygen was evolved on the potassa side, and hydrogen on the nitric acid side. The 
former I had no difficulty in collecting in an inverted closed tube ; the latter was re- 
cognised by its secondary action upon the nitric acid. Nitrate of potassa was of 
course formed at the junction of the acid and alkali. Now let us recollect what ni- 
trate of potassa is in its electrical relations: it is an oxinitrion of potassium (N + 6 0) 
+ P. Aqueo-nitric acid is also an oxinitrion of hydrogen (N + 6 O) + H ; and 
potassa is oxide of potassium (P -|- O). In their local action upon each other, the 
acid and the alkali are both decomposed ; the oxinitrion of the former combines with 
the metal of the latter, and water is formed by the union of the hydrogen and oxygen. 
This water there is no difficulty in regarding as a separate and secondary product, 
in as much as the salt is incapable of combining chemically with it. 
When a circuit, however, is formed with proper conductors, the compositions and 
recompositions take place through a series of connected particles, as in the manner 
of all other electrolytic conduction : and the oxygen and hydrogen instead of com- 
