Having thus settled the question with regard to the disengagement of the saline parts of bodies insoluble in water, he proceeded to extend and multiply his experiments on soluble compounds, the decomposition of which, as might have been supposed, always proceeded with greater rapidity, and furnished results more perfectly distinct. In these processes he employed the agate cups, with platina wires, connected by amianthus moistened with pure water; the solutions were introduced into these cups, and the electrifying power applied in the manner already described. In this way, _sulphate of potash_, _sulphate of soda_, _nitrate of potash_, _phosphate of soda_, &c. were respectively examined; and in every case the acid, after a certain interval, collected in the cup containing the positive wire, and the alkalies and earths in that containing the negative wire. When metallic solutions were employed, metallic crystals or depositions were formed on the negative wire, and oxide was likewise deposited around it, while a great excess of acid was found in the opposite cup. With respect to the transfer of the constituent Parts of Bodies by Electric Action, several original experiments were instituted, and some important conclusions established. Several facts had been stated, which rendered it probable that the saline elements evolved in decompositions by electricity, were capable of being transferred from one electrified surface to another, according to their usual order of arrangement; but to demonstrate this clearly, farther researches were required, and Davy proceeded to supply the necessary evidence. He connected one of the cups of sulphate of lime before mentioned, with a cup of agate, by means of asbestus, and filling them with purified water, connected them with the battery. In about four hours, a strong solution of lime was found in the agate cup, and sulphuric acid in the cup of sulphate of lime. By reversing the order of arrangement, and carrying on the process during a similar period, the sulphuric acid appeared in the agate cup, and the lime in the opposite vessel. In both these experiments (the acid in the one case, and the lime in the other), the elements of the substance must have passed, in an imperceptible form, along the connecting line of asbestus into the opposite vessel. Many trials were made with other saline bodies, and with results equally satisfactory; the base always passing into the vessel rendered negative, and the acid into that which was positive. The time required for these transmissions appeared to be, _cæteris paribus_, in some proportion to the length of the intermediate volume of water.