Note 73 — APPENDIX.

It is well known that Wollaston effected the decomposition of water by the aid of a powerful electrical machine. Having enclosed platina wires within glass tubes, these were fused so as to cover the ends. The glass was afterward so far removed, by grinding, as to expose minute metallic points to the liquid. Under these circumstances, the electricity conveyed by the wires, being prevented from proceeding over them superficially, was obliged to make its way through the ethereo-ponderable matter of which metals consist. Instead of proving the identity of galvanism with frictional electricity, this experiment shows that in one characteristic, at least, there is a discordancy. At the same time it may indicate that ethereal may give rise to ethereo-ponderable undulations.