NoU’-Tnetallic Elementary Bodies. 423 
in these cases no gas is given off for some little time. Ob- 
serving this, it was a matter of great interest to know what 
became of the gas for the first few seconds, and it directly 
occurred that the first portions of gas were bound down in a 
nascent state with the charcoal : this was proved by placing it 
in a solution of sulphate of copper, when the charcoal and the 
coke became coated with a thin film of the metal. In the 
same way gold, silver, mercury, and lead were precipitated 
from their solutions, and iodine set free from iodic acid. Pro- 
bably the other metals were also precipitated, but their co- 
lours render a thin film difficult to be distinguished. _When 
charcoal or the porous coke is made to form the electrodes of 
a battery, the piece forming the kathode or platinode is found 
to have similar properties; but the anode or zincode, how- 
ever, is found to possess nascent oxygen from its liberating 
chlorine from muriatic acid, though this is not quite so satis- 
factory as the experiment with the hydrogen. The gas coke 
and plumbago are found not to possess the property of re- 
taining the gases. Occasionally charcoal will be found to 
precipitate gold and silver from their solutions, but in these 
cases copper, and those metals which have a greater affinity 
for oxygen, are not reduced. 
View the importance of these experiments, as they demon- 
stratively prove that which has hitherto been the prevailing 
theory, namely, that nascent hydrogen precipitates the metals, 
and that the precipitation may take place when the galvanic 
current is broken ; for the coke will retain its hydrogen in 
some cases for forty-eight or more hours. Now in what state 
is the hydrogen when it has these properties ? Is it in the 
form of minute bubbles adhering to the surface? This would 
appear to be a mystery. It is probably in a state analogous 
to solution ; for if a piece of smooth platinum be placed in 
contact with zinc till minute bubbles are covering its whole 
surface, and then the zinc be removed and a solution of a 
metal be poured upon the platinum in such a way that the 
bubbles are not disturbed, no precipitation takes place; and 
even spongy platinum or spongy palladium fails under the 
same circumstances to precipitate the metal. 
Much difficulty arises in naming the two poles of a battery; 
they are called the positive end and the negative end, the 
anode and the kathode, the platinode and zincode ; now as 
each pole of a simple battery becomes reversed if the battery 
is doubled, it is better to name the two ends from the oxygen 
and hydrogen ; since we have shown that the galvanic cur- 
rent owes its power of decomposing many substances entirely 
to these gases. The names which are proposed are the ox- 
