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X. On Voltaic Combinations. In a Letter addressed to Michael Faraday, D.C.L. 
F.R.S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, Corr. Mernb. Royal 8$ Imp. 
Acadd. of Science, Paris, Petersburgh, fyc. By J. Frederic Daniell, F.R.S., 
Prof. Chem. in Kings College, London. 
Received January 26, — Read February 11, 1836. 
My dear Faraday, 
You know how deep an interest I have taken in your “ Experimental Researches 
in Electricity,” and how zealously I have availed myself of the opportunities, which 
you have ever kindly afforded me, of profiting by your oral explanation of such diffi- 
culties as occurred to me in the study of your last series of papers in the Philoso- 
phical Transactions. Having been early impressed with the conviction that the 
science of chemistry would date, from their publication, one of its great revolutions 
and eras of fresh impulse, I have been careful not only to store my own mind with 
the new facts and reasonings which they contain, but to impress them upon my 
pupils in my class room ; and for this purpose I have been led to contrive some new 
apparatus and forms of experiments, by which the principles which you have promul- 
gated have been verified, and, I think, in some instances demonstrated to advantage. 
In thus working in the mine which you have opened, you will be the last to be sur- 
prised if I should have moreover stumbled upon some threads of ore which you may 
have passed by, or temporarily abandoned, whilst following the main lode ; and you 
will not be displeased that I venture to submit to your judgement whether there be 
enough of novelty or importance in the following observations to render them worthy 
of the attention of the Royal Society. 
One result, I know, will gratify you ; namely, that amongst the almost innumerable 
tests to which I have exposed your great discovery of the definite chemical action of 
electricity, I have found no fact to militate against it ; and you will the more rejoice 
should I succeed in proving to you that, under the direction of this fundamental 
principle, I have been led to the construction of a voltaic arrangement, which fur- 
nishes a constant current of electricity for any length of time which maybe required; 
and have thus been enabled to remove one of the greatest difficulties which have 
hitherto obstructed those who have endeavoured to measure and compare the dif- 
ferent voltaic phenomena, viz. the variableness of the action of the common bat- 
teries. 
You are aware of the vexatious accident by which I lost the original notes of my 
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