The conclusions which he drew from these experiments are, that all substances which have a chemical affinity for each other, are in different states of electricity, and that the degree of affinity is proportional to the intensity of these opposite states. When such a compound body is placed in contact with the poles of a galvanic battery, the positive pole attracts the constituent, which is negative, and repels the positive. The negative acts in the opposite way, attracting the positive constituent and repelling the negative. The more powerful the battery, the greater is the force of these attractions and repulsions. We may, therefore, by increasing the energy of a battery sufficiently, enable it to decompose any compound whatever, the negative constituent being attracted by the positive pole, and the positive constituent by the negative pole. Oxygen, chlorine, bromine, iodine, cyanogen, and acids, are _negative_ bodies; for they always appear round the _positive_ pole of the battery, and are therefore attracted to it: while hydrogen, azote, carbon, selenium, metals, alkalies, earths, and oxide bases, are deposited round the negative pole, and consequently are _positive_. According to this view of the subject, chemical affinity is merely a case of the attractions exerted by bodies in different states of electricity. Volta first broached the idea, that every body possesses naturally a certain state of electricity. Davy went a step further, and concluded, that the attractions which exist between the atoms of different bodies are merely the consequence of these different states of electricity. The proof of this opinion is founded on the fact, that if we present to a compound, sufficiently strong electrical poles, it will be separated into its constituents, and one of these constituents will invariably make its way to the positive and the other to the negative pole. Now bodies in a state of electrical excitement always attract those that are in the opposite state.