His first attempts were made on solutions of the alkalies; but, notwithstanding the intensity of the electric action, the water alone underwent decomposition, and oxygen and hydrogen were disengaged with the production of much heat, and violent effervescence. The presence of water thus appearing to prevent the desired decomposition, potash, in a state of igneous fusion, was in various ways submitted to experiment; when it was evident that combustible matter of some kind, burning with a vivid light, was given off at the negative wire. After numerous trials, during the progress of which the difficulties which successively arose were as immediately combated by ingenious manipulation, a small piece of potash sufficiently moistened, by a short exposure to the air, to give its surface a conducting power, was placed on an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery in a state of intense activity, and a platina wire communicating with the positive side, was at the same instant brought into contact within the upper surface of the alkali.--Mark what followed!--A series of phenomena, each of which the reader will readily understand as it is announced,--for it will be in strict accordance with the laws which Davy had previously established:--the potash began to fuse at both its points of electrization: a violent effervescence commenced at the upper, or positive surface; while at the lower, or negative one, instead of any liberation of elastic matter, which would probably have happened had hydrogen been an element of the alkaline body, small globules, resembling quicksilver, appeared, some of which were no sooner formed than they burnt with explosion and bright flame.--What must have been the sensations of Davy at this moment!--He had decomposed potash, and obtained its base in a metallic form. The gaseous matter developed, during the experiment, at the positive pole of the apparatus, he very shortly identified as oxygen. To collect, however, the metallic matter, in a quantity sufficient for a satisfactory examination, was by no means so easy; for, like the _Alkahest_ imagined by the Alchemist, it acted more or less upon every body to which it was exposed; and such was its attraction for oxygen, that it speedily reverted to the state of alkali by recombining with it. After various trials, however, it was found that recently distilled naphtha presented a medium in which it might be preserved and examined, since a thin transparent film of this fluid, while it defended the metal from the action of the atmosphere, did not oppose any obstacle to the investigation of its physical properties. Thus provided, he proceeded to enquire into the nature of the new and singular body, to which he afterwards gave the name of POTASSIUM, and which may be described as follows.