10 
REVIEW OP CERTAIN DOCTRINES, ETC. 
the zinc was found oxidizable by diluted sulphuric acid, 
provided it were made the element of a galvanic pair. 
The facts above mentioned, having been recalled to the 
attention of the scientific reader, I beg leave to inquire 
whether the electrolytic influence thus ascribed by Fara- 
day to the metallic particles, has not a greater analogy 
with that of a ferment, than those which have been brought 
forward by Liebig, Kane, and others, with a view to ex- 
plain the influence of that class of agents upon mechanico- 
chemical principles ? Wherefore, may not the distribution 
of a nitrogenized substance, throughout a mass of inorganic 
matter, operate as do the metallic impurities in commercial 
zinc? The existence of a powerful voltaic series in the 
gymnotus and other electrical fishes shows that the proxi- 
mate elements of animal matter, are, when duly associated, 
as capable as metals of forming the elements not only of 
simple, but of complex galvanic circuits. 
The efficacy of water in exciting fermentation may be 
referred to its ability to promote electrolysis, and until we 
are enabled thoroughly to understand the part which it 
performs in this process, we shall vainly attempt to explain 
that species of catalysis to which the presence of moisture 
is indispensable. 
