l8S ^frizes founded by the Fir/2 Conful 



His intentions in this refpccl are exprefTed in the following 

 letter, which -was tranfinitted to the clais by the minifter oT 

 the interior:^ . _ Paris Prairii, 26, «n. iq. 



44 I intend, citizen minifter, to found a prize confiding of 

 a medal of 3000 francs (about \zo\. iterling) for the bell: 

 experiment which {hall be made in the courfe of each year 

 on the galvanic, fluid. For this purpofe, the memoirs con- 

 taining the details of the faid experiments (hall be fent before 

 the lit of Fruciidor to the iirft elafs of the National Inftitute, 

 which in the complementary days mall adjudge the prize to 

 the author of that experiment which has been mod uk{u\ to 

 the progrefs of fcience. 



" I deft re to give, by way of encouragement, the firm of 

 .60,000 francs (2400I.) to the perfon who by his experiments 

 and difcoveries mall, according to the opinion of the elafs, 

 advance the knowledge of electricity aud galvanifm as much 

 as Franklin and Volta did. 



" Foreigners of all nations are admitted to the competition. 

 w I beg you will make known thefe difpofitions to the pre- 

 fident of the firft clafs of the National Inftitute, that it may 

 give to thefe ideas fuch development as may appear proper; 

 my particular object, being to encourage philofophers, and di- 

 recl their attention to this part of philofophy, which, in my 

 opinion, may lead to great difcoveries. 



(Signed) "Bonaparte." 

 The National Inftitute, which has taken an active part in 

 the grand difcoveries with which the theory of electricity has 

 been enriched, will be fully fenfible of the importance of the 

 fubjecl indicated by the firtt conful. Of all the phyficai 

 forces to which natural bodies arc fubjecled, electricity ap- 

 pears to be that the influence of which is ofteneft manifefted. 

 It not onlv acls on inorganic fubftances, which it modifies or 

 decompofes, hut organized bodies themfelves experience from 

 it the moil aftonifhing effects. What to the antients was onlv 

 the iimple refult of Ibmc attractive properties, has become for 

 modern philosophers the lource of the molt brilliant difco- 

 veri 



r l he hiftory of electricity may be divided into two periods, 

 which are diltinguifhed as much by the nature of the refults 

 as bv that <rf the apparatus employed to obtain them. In 

 one, the electric influence is produced by the friclion of glafs 

 or of refmous matters; in the other, electricity is put in mo- 

 tion' merely by the mutual contact of bodies. We mutt re- •■ 

 ier to the (irft of thefe epochs the diftinclion between the two 

 kinds of electricity, refmous and vitreous, the analyfis of 

 the Levden iiafk, the explanation of thunder, the invention 



of 



