else the zinc
b cannot move in the same direction
to unite to the oxygen
d, nor the oxygen
d
move in the contrary direction to unite to the zinc
b, the relation of the
similar forces
of
b and
c, in contrary directions,
to the
opposite forces of
d being the
preventive. As the hydrogen
e advances,
it, on coming against the platina
c, f, which
forms a part of the circuit, communicates its electric
or chemical forces through it to the next electrolyte
in the circuit, fused chloride of lead,
g, h,
where the chlorine must move in conformity with the
direction of the oxygen at
d, for it has to
compensate the forces disturbed in its part of the
circuit by the superior influence of those between
the oxygen and zinc at
d, b, aided as they
are by those of the battery
a; and for a similar
reason the lead must move in the direction pointed
out by the arrow head, that it may be in right relation
to the first moving body of its own class, namely,
the zinc
b. If copper intervene in the
circuit from
i to
k, it acts as the
platina did before; and if another electrolyte, as
the iodide of tin, occur at
l, m, then the iodine
l, being an
anion, must move in conformity
with the exciting
anion, namely, the oxygen
d, and the
cation tin
m move in
correspondence with the other
cations b, e,
and
h, that the chemical forces may be in equilibrium
as to their direction and quantity throughout the circuit.
Should it so happen that the anions in their circulation
can combine with the metals at the
anodes of
the respective electrolytes, as would be the case
at the platina
f and the copper
k, then
those bodies becoming parts of electrolytes, under
the influence of the current, immediately travel;
but considering their relation to the zinc
b,
it is evidently impossible that they can travel in
any other direction than what will accord with its
course, and therefore can never tend to pass otherwise
than
from the anode and
to the cathode.
964. In such a circle as that delineated, therefore,
all the known anions may be grouped within,
and all the cations without. If any number
of them enter as ions into the constitution
of electrolytes, and, forming one circuit,
are simultaneously subject to one common current, the
anions must move in accordance with each other in
one direction, and the cations in the other.
Nay, more than that, equivalent portions of these bodies
must so advance in opposite directions: for the
advance of every 32.5 parts of the zinc b must
be accompanied by a motion in the opposite direction
of 8 parts of oxygen at d, of 36 parts of chlorine
at g, of 126 parts of iodine at l; and
in the same direction by electro-chemical equivalents
of hydrogen, lead, copper and tin, at e, h, k.
and m.