The use of the words "positive" and "negative" needs to be guarded by the
following paragraphs from the article on "Chemistry" in the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_. We use the words in their ordinary text-book meaning, and have
not, so far, detected any characteristics whereby an element can be
declared, at sight, to be either positive or negative:--
"When binary compounds, or compounds of two elements, are decomposed by an
electric current, the two elements make their appearance at opposite poles.
These elements which are disengaged at the negative pole are termed
electro-positive or positive or basylous elements, while those disengaged
at the positive pole are termed electro-negative or negative or chlorous
elements. But the difference between these two classes of elements is one
of degree only, and they gradually merge into each other; moreover the
electric relations of elements are not absolute, but vary according to the
state of combination in which they exist, so that it is just as impossible
to divide the elements into two classes according to this property as it is
to separate them into two distinct classes of metals and non-metals.
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