82 Biographical Account of [Feb. 



posed a Latin poem descriptive of the phenomena observed 

 by the most celebrated experimenters of the day, which has 

 never however been published, and afterwards he wrote 

 some verses on Saussure's ascent to the summit of Mont 

 Blanc. 



At eighteen years of age he corresponded with Nollet, 

 upon some of the most delicate questions in physics. 



When twenty- four, he broached the subject of the Leyden 

 phial in his first Memoir. This apparatus was discovered 

 in 1746. Its singular effects were sufficient to justify the 

 curiosity which it excited over all Europe ; but this excite- 

 ment was in a great measure increased by the foolish 

 exaggeration of Muschenbrbek, who on receiving a feeble 

 charge, was affected with such extraordinary fear, that he 

 exclaimed emphatically, that he would not undergo a 

 second shock for the finest kingdom in the universe. To 

 Franklin is due the honour of having explained the mode 

 of action of the Leyden phial. 



The second Memoir of Volta appeared in the year 1771, 

 in which we find no idea of system. Observation is the 

 author's only guide in endeavouring to determine the 

 electricity of bodies, and in assigning the temperature, 

 colour, and elasticity, which produce variations of the pheno- 

 mena, and in studying the cause of the production of 

 electricity, whether by percussion, friction, or pressure. 



In Italy these Memoirs produced a strong sensation, and 

 their author was elevated to the situation of Regent of the 

 Royal School of Como, and soon afterwards was made 

 professor of physics. 



The missionaries at Pekin, in the year 1775, communi- 

 cated to the philosophers of Europe the important fact 

 which they had accidentally observed, that electricity shows 

 itself or disappears in certain bodies, when they are sepa- 

 rated, or in immediate contact. This fact originated the 

 interesting researches of iEpinus, Wilcke, Cigna, and 

 Beccaria. Volta also made it his particular study, and 

 drew from it his idea of the perpetual electrophorus, an 

 admirable instrument which, in the smallest size, forms a 

 source of the electric fluid. 



To his memoir upon the electrophorus, succeeded in 1778 

 another very important work. It had been already observed 



