646.  But when carbonic oxide was substituted for the carbonic acid, not the slightest effect of combination was produced; and when the carbonic oxide was only one-eighth of the whole volume, no action occurred in forty and fifty hours.  Yet the plates had not lost their power; for being taken out and put into pure oxygen and hydrogen, they acted well and at once.

647.  Two volumes of carbonic oxide and one of oxygen were mingled with nine volumes of oxygen and hydrogen (638.).  This mixture was not affected by a plate which had been made positive in acid, though it remained in it fifteen hours.  But when to the same volumes of carbonic oxide and oxygen were added thirty-three volumes of oxygen and hydrogen, the carbonic oxide being then only 1/18th part of the whole, the plate acted, slowly at first, and at the end of forty-two minutes the gases exploded.

648.  These experiments were extended to various gases and vapours, the general results of which may be given as follow.  Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide, when used to dilute the mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, did not prevent the action of the plates even when they made four-fifths of the whole volume of gas acted upon.  Nor was the retardation so great in any case as might have been expected from the mere dilution of the oxygen and hydrogen, and the consequent mechanical obstruction to its contact with the platina.  The order in which carbonic acid and these substances seemed to stand was as follows, the first interfering least with the action; nitrous oxide, hydrogen, carbonic acid, nitrogen, oxygen:  but it is possible the plates were not equally well prepared in all the cases, and that other circumstances also were unequal; consequently more numerous experiments would be required to establish the order accurately.

649.  As to cases of retardation, the powers of olefiant gas and carbonic oxide have been already described.  Mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen, containing from 1/16th to 1/20th of sulphuretted hydrogen or phosphuretted hydrogen, seemed to show a little action at first, but were not further affected by the prepared plates, though in contact with them for seventy hours.  When the plates were removed they had lost all power over pure oxygen and hydrogen, and the interference of these gases was therefore of a different nature from that of the two former, having permanently affected the plate.

650.  A small piece of cork was dipped in sulphuret of carbon and passed up through water into a tube containing oxygen and hydrogen (638.), so as to diffuse a portion of its vapour through the gases.  A plate being introduced appeared at first to act a little, but after sixty-one hours the diminution was very small.  Upon putting the same plate into a pure mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, it acted at once and powerfully, having apparently suffered no diminution of its force.