The machine was turned; and it was always found that at the point where the electricity entered the paper, litmus was reddened, and at the point where it quitted the paper, turmeric was browned.

'Here,' he urges, 'the poles are entirely abandoned, but we have still electrochemical decomposition.' It is evident to him that instead of being attracted by the poles, the bodies separated are ejected by the current.

The effects thus obtained with poles of air he also succeeded in obtaining with poles of water.

The advance in Faraday's own ideas made at this time is indicated by the word 'ejected.' He afterwards reiterates this view: the evolved substances are expelled from the decomposing body, and 'not drawn out by an attraction.
Having abolished this idea of polar attraction, he proceeds to enunciate and develop a theory of his own.

He refers to Davy's celebrated Bakerian Lecture, given in 1806, which he says 'is almost entirely occupied in the consideration of electrochemical decompositions.' The facts recorded in that lecture Faraday regards as of the utmost value.