BY DR. HARE. 
209 
the next particle in succession; the hydrogen of this again, with the 
oxygen of the next; and soon till the last particle of hydrogen com- 
municates its impulse to the platinum, and escapes in its own elastic 
form." 
71. The process here represented as taking place in the 
instance of the oxide of hydrogen, takes place, of course, in 
that of any other electrolyte. 
72. It is well known, that when a fixed alkaline solution 
is subjected to the voltaic current, that the alkali, whether 
soda or potassa, is decomposed; so that if mercury be used 
for the cathode, the nascent metal, being protected by unit- 
ing therewith, an amalgam is formed. If the cathode be of 
platinum, the metal, being unprotected, is, by decomposing 
water, reconverted into an oxide as soon as evolved. This 
shows, that when a salt of potassa or soda is subjected to 
the voltaic current, it is the alkali which is the primary ob- 
ject of attack, the decomposition of the water being a secon- 
dary result. 
73. If in a row of the atoms of soda, extending from one 
electrode to the other, while forming the base of a sulphate, 
a series of electrolytic decompositions be induced from the 
cathode on the right, to the anode on the left, by which 
each atom of sodium in the row will be transferred from the 
atom of acid with which it was previously combined, to 
that next upon the right, causing an atom of the metal to 
be liberated at the cathode; this atom, deoxidizing water, 
will account for the soda and hydrogen at the cathode. 
Meanwhile the atom of sulphate on the left, which has been 
deprived of its sodium, must simultaneously have yielded 
to the anode the oxygen by which this metal was oxidized. 
Of course the acid is left in the hydrous state, usually called 
free, though more correctly esteemed to be that of a sulphate 
of water. 
74. I cannot conceive how any other result could be ex- 
pected from the electrolysis of the base of sulphate of soda, 
than that which is here described. Should any additional 
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