resting in an opposite direction, i.e. as affording cases
of analytic decomposition. Much information regarding the composition, and
perhaps even the arrangement, of the particles of such bodies as the
vegetable acids and alkalies, and organic compounds generally, will
probably be obtained by submitting them to the action of nascent oxygen,
hydrogen, chlorine, &c. at the electrodes; and the action seems the more
promising, because of the thorough command which we possess over attendant
circumstances, such as the strength of the current, the size of the
electrodes, the nature of the decomposing conductor, its strength, &c., all
of which may be expected to have their corresponding influence upon the
final result.

782. It is to me a great satisfaction that the extreme variety of secondary
results has presented nothing opposed to the doctrine of a constant and
definite electro-chemical action, to the particular consideration of which
I shall now proceed.

P vii. _On the definite nature and extent of Electro-chemical
Decomposition._

783. In the third series of these Researches, after proving the identity of
electricities derived from different sources, and showing, by actual
measurement, the extraordinary quantity of electricity evolved by a very
feeble voltaic arrangement (371. 376.), I announced a law, derived from
experiment, which seemed to me of the utmost importance to the science of
electricity in general, and that branch of it denominated electro-chemistry
in particular. The law was expressed thus: _The chemical power of a current
of electricity is in direct proportion to the absolute quantity of
electricity which passes_ (377.).

[A] Annales de Chimie, tom, xxxv. p. 113.

784. In the further progress of the successive investigations, I have had
frequent occasion to refer to the same law, sometimes in circumstances
offering powerful corroboration of its truth (456. 504. 505.); and the
present series already supplies numerous new cases in which it holds good
(704. 722. 726. 732.). It is now my object to consider this great principle
more closely, and to develope some of the consequences to which it leads.
That the evidence for it may be the more distinct and applicable, I shall
quote cases of decomposition subject to as few interferences from secondary
results as possible, effected upon bodies very simple, yet very definite in
their nature.

785. In the first place, I consider the law as so fully establish