BY DR. HARE. 
215 
that the metal evolved at the cathode, not decomposing 
water, would appear in the metallic form. If water be the 
primary object of attack, the evolution of copper would be 
a secondary effect. 
86. It is remarkable, that after I had written the pre- 
ceding interpretation of Daniell's experiments, I met with 
the following deductions stated by Matteuchi, as the result 
of an arduous series of experiments, without any reference 
to those of Daniell above mentioned. It will be perceived 
that these deductions coincide perfectly with mine. 
87. I subjoin a literal translation of the language of Mat- 
teuchi from the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, tome 
74, 1840, page 110:— 
" When salt, dissolved in water, is decomposed by the voltaic cur- 
rent, if the action of the current be confined to the salt, for each equiva- 
lent of water decomposed in the voltameter, there will be an equivalent 
of metal at the negative pole, and an equivalent of acid, plus an equiva- 
lent of oxygen, at the positive pole. The metal separated at the nega- 
tive pole will be in the metallic state, or oxidized according to its nature. 
If oxidized, an equivalent of hydrogen will be simultaneously disen- 
gaged by the chemical decomposition of water." 
88. Thus it seems, that the appearance of acid and oxy- 
gen at the anode, and of alkali and hydrogen at the cathode, 
which has been considered as requiring the simultaneous 
decomposition of two electrolytes upon the heretofore re- 
ceived theory of salts, has, by Matteuchi, been found to be 
a result requiring the electrolysis of the metallic base only, 
and, consequently, to be perfectly reconcilable with that 
theory. 
89. In fact I had, from the study of Faraday's Researches, 
taken up the impression, that the separate appearance of an 
acid and base, previously forming a salt, at the voltaic 
electrodes, was to be viewed as a secondary effect of the 
decomposition of the water or the base; so that acids 
and bases were never the direct objects of electrolytic 
transfer. 
