THE 



EDINBURGH 

 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Art. I. — Biographical Sketch of Alexander Volt a, Profes- 

 sor of Natural Philosophy at Como. 



Alexander Volta was born at Como on the 18th February 

 1745, and was descended from an ancient family of that city. 

 Among the misfortunes of his infancy, his friends have enu- 

 merated that of having a foolish nurse, and to this cause they 

 have ascribed the slow developement of his mental powers. 

 The first exhibition of his talent was a piece of poetry ; but 

 even in his poems, which were composed in Latin and Italian, 

 he already pointed out the subjects which were likely to de- 

 mand the efforts of his genius. He soon published, indeed, a 

 paper in prose on the phenomena of electricity, and on a new 

 apparatus destined to carry on the discoveries in this branch of 

 physics. 



After having completed the course of studies in the univer- 

 sity of Como, he was appointed regent of it, and subsequent- 

 ly obtained the chair of natural philosophy. From Como he 

 went to the university of Pavia, where he devoted to science 

 the labours of thirty years, and dignified the name of his 

 country with deeds of intellectual renown, which fixed the at- 

 tention of Europe, and formed an era in the history of the 

 human mind. 



One of the first inventions of Volta was that of the electro- 

 phorus, which he described in June 1775, and of which he 

 published an account in Ro%ier'*s Journal de Physique for 

 September 1776. This ingenious instrument consists of a ine- 



VOL.^VIII. NO. I. JAN. 1828. A 



