1S6 ON ANIMAL SECRETIONS. 



Judging that the diminution of the quantity of electric 

 fluid in motion proceeded from a want of conducting faculty 

 in the wool itself, and aware, that no metallic substance 

 could be substituted for obtaining a better conductor, I un- 

 dertook a long series of experiments, by forming piles of 

 20 groups zinc and silver, separated by all the substances 

 of the vegetable and animal kinds that I could devise, ap- 

 Writing paper plying these groups to the condenser. Of these experi- 

 substances for' ments ' nowever > 1 *hall only mention the practical result, 

 separating the which was, that among all these bodies, writing paper was 

 xnetas ' one of the best for the intended purpose, at the same time 



that it is the most easy to manage ; and I made the follow- 

 ing experiment. 

 Exp. 20, Exp. 20. I mounted again the pile of 76 groups zinc 



and silver, and separated them with pieces of writing pa- 

 per. < 



1. I found a great increase in the electric signs at the ex- 

 tremities of the pile, comparatively with the cloth, 

 / 2. These signs ceased when the glass tubes were applied, 



but still no chemical effect was produced in the water of the 

 iubes. 



This experiment opened before me a new and extensive 

 field, i.i which 1 have ever si ace travelled, as will be seen 

 in the second Part of this analysis, and iu a following pa- 

 per- 



flints on the Subject of Animal Secretions. By Everard 

 Home, Esq. E. R. S. Communicated by the Society for 

 the Improvement of Animal Chemistry*. 



Ani alsecre- J- HE brilliant discoveries of Mr, Davy on the powers of 

 tions perhaps electricity in producing chemical changes suggested to me 



the 



* Philos. Transact, for I809, p. 385. 



Dr. Wollaston's observations, inserted in the Philosophical Maga- 

 zine ,were published after this paper had been laid before the Society. 



I was 



