uce any current of electricity. Philosophical
Transactions, 1826, p. 398.

926. This view of the secondary character of the sulphuric acid as an agent
in the production of the voltaic current, is further confirmed by the fact,
that the current generated and transmitted is directly and exactly
proportional to the quantity of water decomposed and the quantity of zinc
oxidized (868. 991.), and is the same as that required to decompose the
same quantity of water. As, therefore, the decomposition of the water shows
that the electricity has passed by its means, there remains no other
electricity to be accounted for or to be referred to any action other than
that of the zinc and the water on each other.

927. The general case (for it includes the former one (924.),) of acids and
bases, may theoretically be stated in the following manner. Let _a_, fig.
79, be supposed to be a dry oxacid, and _b_ a dry base, in contact at _c_,
and in electric communication at their extremities by plates of platina
_pp_, and a platina wire _w_. If this acid and base were fluid, and
combination took place at _c_, with an affinity ever so vigorous, and
capable of originating an electric current, the current could not circulate
in any important degree; because, according to the experimental results,
neither _a_ nor _b_ could conduct without being decomposed, for they are
either electrolytes or else insulators, under all circumstances, except to
very feeble and unimportant currents (970. 986.). Now the affinities at _c_
are not such as tend to cause the _elements_ either of _a_ or _b_ to
separate, but only such as would make the two bodies combine together as a
whole; the point of action is, therefore, insulated, the action itself
local (921. 947.), and no current can be formed.

928. If the acid and base be dissolved in water, then it is possible that a
small portion of the electricity due to chemical action may be conducted by
the water without decomposition (966. 984.); but the quantity will be so
small as to be utterly disproportionate to that due to the equivalents of
chemical force; will be merely incidental; and, as it does not involve the
essential principles of the voltaic pile, it forms no part of the phenomena
at present under investigation[A].

[A] It will I trust be fully understood, that in these investigations
I am not professing to take an account of every small, incidental, or
barely possible effect, dependent upon slight d