JQQ GALVANIC DISCOVERIES. 



and tmythus be excited. I had put a louis thus galvanifed into my pocket, 



ainon^others, and ^ r » Ritter faid to me a few minutes after, that I might 



find out this louis from among the reft, by trying them in 



fucceftion upon the frog. Accordingly I made the trial, and 



in reality diftinguifhed among feveral others a fingle one, in 



as it docs not vvhich the exciting quality was very evident. This charge is 

 lofe its charge ... . J , f ' . . . °. 



for fome retained in proportion to the time that the piece has remained 



minutes. j n tne circuit of the pile. Of three different louis which Mr. 



Ritter charged in my prefence, neither loft its charge in lefs 

 than five minutes. All thefe experiments fucceeded com- 

 pletely, and nothing feemed fo eafy as to repeat them. 



This /Vows the This retention of the galvanic charge by a metal in contact 

 nit y ° r , e with the hand, and with other metals, (hews this communica- 



galvanic with 9 . * 



the magnetic tion of the galvanic virtue fo have more affinity with mag- 



flutd, between nel jf m t [ )an w j t h electricity, and afligns to the galvanic fluid 



which and the , , , , 



declr-c, it holds an intermediate rank between the other two. 



a middle place. j n t h e manne r which I have j uft defcribed, Mr. Ritter can 



Several pieces +•/*«»• 



may be charged charge at once as many pieces as he withes. It is luthcient 

 at once. if the two extreme pieces of the number communicate with 



the pile through the intervention of wet pafteboards. It is 

 with metallic difes charged in this manner, and placed upon 

 one another with pieces of wet pafteboard alternately inter- 

 Ritterian pile, pofed, that Mr. Ritter conftru&s his charging pile, which 

 ought in remembrance of its inventor to be called the Ritterian 

 Metals thus pile. The'; conftru&ion of this pile fliows, that each metal 

 charge acquire g a ] van jf ec i j n this way acquires polarity, as the needle does 

 when touched with a magnet. Though I have had no op- 

 portunity of feeing this new pile, I have convinced myfelf of 

 the reality of the phenomenon by an experiment of the higheft 

 importance to fcience, and for the invention of which we are 

 equally indebted to the fame ingenious philofopher. 



2. Different Excitability of the Parts of Animals. 

 Different exci- During the coupfe of feveral years in which Mr. Ritter has 

 'arts''©!* Animals ^ een em P'°)' e d in galvanic purfuits, and during which he has 

 made many thou fands of experiments on the excitation pro- 

 duced in the frog by the contact of two different metals, 

 for Mr. Ritter has not entirely abandoned the original mode of 

 galvanifing, like moil other experimentalifts, who employ 

 Volta's pile exclufively ; he had perceived not only a very 

 linking difference in the excitability of the different parts of 



animals, 



