Mr. Davy, secretary of the Royal Society, placed a small piece of pure potash (which had previously been exposed to the atmosphere, so as to render it a conductor of the Galvanic fluid,) upon an insulated plate of platina, connected with the negative[20] end of a battery, of the power of two hundred and fifty plates, six inches by four, in a state of intense activity.—A wire communicating with the positive end, was brought in contact with the upper surface of the alkali. The whole apparatus was in the open air. Under these circumstances a vivid action was soon perceived.—The potash began to fuse at both points where the fluid acted upon it.—There was a violent effervescence at the upper surface:—at the lower or negative surface there was no liberation of elastic fluid, but there appeared small metallic globules, very much resembling quick-silver. Some of these globules burned with an explosion and a bright flame, as soon as they were formed, while others remained which were merely tarnished; and finally a white film was formed over their surfaces, which was afterwards found to be pure potash. Soda was acted upon in the same manner as potash, and exhibited the same results; but its decomposition required a stronger action of the battery, or it was necessary that the soda should be in smaller pieces than the potash. The metallic globules produced from the potash remained fluids in the open air, at the time of their production; but those from soda, though fluid at the time of their formation, upon cooling, became solid, having much the lustre of silver. The alkalies could be made to produce metallic results in vacuo. Since Mr. Davy’s first experiments on this subject, several others have been made, much in the same manner, upon the earths. Messrs. Pontin and Berzelius, two Swedish chemists, have succeeded in obtaining metallic amalgams from lime, magnesia, strontites and barytes; but they could produce no such effect on alumine and silex. Mr. Davy however effected this, by a battery of 36000 square inches.—He also improved upon their other discoveries. He, by distillation, drove off the mercury from the amalgamated metals which they obtained from the earths, and procured a pure metal. Ammonia was also found to contain a metal. This discovery inclines one to believe, that the air we breathe contains metal in a gaseous state, as azote, which is a component part of ammonia, forms a large portion of our atmosphere.