XXIII. Electro-chemical researches, on the decomposition of the earths; with observations on the metals obtained from the alkaline earths, and on the amalgam procured from ammonia

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1807, Part I. and 1808, Part I. I have detailed the general methods of decomposition by electricity, and stated various new facts obtained in consequence of the application of them. The results of the experiments on potash and soda, as I stated in my last communication to the Society, afforded me the strongest hopes of being able to effect the decomposition both of the alkaline and common earths; and the phenomena obtained in the first imperfect trials made upon those bodies countenanced the ideas that had obtained from the earliest periods of chemistry, of their being metallic in their nature.*