Transference of Acid and Alkali        73
tions of asbestus were lifted out, and the drops hanging at the
ends allowed to fall each into its respective vessel. The acids
in a and b were then first compared, for which purpose two
evaporating dishes were balanced, and the acid from a put into
one, and that from b into the other; but as one was a little
heavier than the other, a small drop was transferred from the
heavier to the lighter, and the two rendered equal in weight.
Being neutralised by the addition of the soda solution (261),
that from a} or the negative vessel, required 15 parts of the
soda solution, and that from b, or the positive vessel, required
16.3 parts. That the sum of these is not 34 parts is principally
due to the acid removed with the asbestus; but taking the
mean of 15.65 parts, it would appear that a twenty-fourth part
of the acid originally in the vessel a had passed, through the
influence of the electric current, from a into b.
 264.	In comparing the difference of acid in A and B, the
necessary equality of weight was considered as of no conse-
quence, because the solution was at first neutral, and would not,
therefore, affect the test liquids, and all the evolved acid would
be in B, and the free alkali in A.   The solution in A required
3.2 measures of the prepared acid (261) to neutralise it, and the
solution in B required also 3.2 measures of the soda solution
(261) to neutralise it.   As the asbestus must have removed a
little acid and alkali from the glasses, these quantities are by so
much too small;  and therefore it would appear that about a
tenth of the acid originally in the vessel A had been transferred
into B during the continuance of the electric action.
 265.	In another similar experiment, whilst a thirty-fifth part
of the acid passed from a to b in the free acid vessels, between
a tenth and an eleventh passed from A to B in the combined
acid vessels.    Other experiments of the same kind gave similar
results.
 266.	The variation of electro-chemical decomposition,  the
transfer of elements and their accumulation at the poles, accord-
ing as the substance submitted to action consists of particles
opposed more or less in their chemical affinity, together with
the consequent influence of the latter circumstances, are suffi-
ciently obvious in these cases, where sulphuric acid is actecl
upon in the same quantity by the same electric current, but in
one case opposed to the comparatively weak affinity of water
for it, and in the other to the stronger one of soda.    In the
latter case the quantity transferred is from two and a half to
three times what it is in the former; -and it appears therefore