104 REFUTATION OF THE SALT RADICAL THEORY, 
nation with basic water, without having been made to act in 
the capacity of an anion. 
(o) The copper in the case of a solution of the sulphate 
of this metal and a solution of potash, separated by a mem- 
brane, would, by electrolyzation, be evolved by the same 
process as sodium, so long as there should be copper to per- 
form the office of a cathion; and when there should no 
longer be any copper to act in this capacity, the metal of 
the alkali, or hydrogen of water, on the other side of the 
membrane, would act as a cathion ; the oxygen acting as an 
anion from one electrode to the other, first to the copper, 
and then to the potassium: — 
{p) The allegation that the copper was deposited from 
the want of an anion (oxysulphion) to combine with, is 
manifestly an error, since, had there been no anion, there 
could have been no discharge, as alleged, to hydrogen as a 
cathion, nor any electrolysis: — 
(q) The hydrated oxide precipitated on the membrane 
came from the reaction of the alkali with the sulphate of 
copper; the precipitated oxide of this metal from the oxy- 
gen of the soda acting as an anion; and the deposit of 
metallic copper from the solutions performing, feebly, the 
part of electrodes, while themselves the subjects of electro- 
lyzation: — 
(r) The so called principles of Liebig,* by which his 
theory of organic acids is preceded, are mainly an inversion 
of the truth, since they make the capacity of saturation of 
hydrated acids dependent on the quantity of hydrogen in 
their basic water, instead of making both the quantity of 
water, and, of course, the quantity of hydrogen therein, de- 
pend on their capacity: — 
(s) All that is truly said of hydrogen would be equally 
true of any other radical, while the language employed 
*Traite de Chymie Organique, torn. 1, page 7. 
