THE 



EDINBURGH 'NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



HISTORICAL ELOGE OF ALEXANDER VOLTA. By M. ArAGO, 



Permanent Secretary to the Academy of Sciences,* 



W HEN yellow amber is rubbed, it has a strong attraction for 

 light bodies, such as the barbs of feathers, pieces of straw, and 

 saw-dust. Theophrastus among the Greeks, and Pliny among 

 the Romans, had observed this property, but without appear- 

 ing to attach to it a greater degree of importance than to a sim- 

 ple accident of form or colour. They did not suspect that they 

 had touched the first link of a long chain of discoveries, and 

 were little aware of the importance of an observation, which, in 

 more recent times, furnished the means of disarming the stormy 

 clouds, and conducting into the bowels of the earth, without 

 even the danger of an explosion, the thunder with which these 

 clouds are charged. 



The Greek name of amber, electron, has led to the word elec- 

 tricity, which at first denoted the powerful attraction of bodies 

 subjected to friction. The same word, however, is applied to 

 a great variety of effects, and to all the details of a noble science. 

 Electricity remained for a long time in the hands of physicians, 

 the almost exclusive result of complicated combinations, which 

 natural phenomena rarely presented united. The man of genius, 

 whose works I am this day to analyze, was the first who went 

 beyond these narrow limits. By means of some microscopic ap- 

 paratus, he ascertained the existence of electricity almost every- 



• This interesting Biography or Eloge was sent to us from Paris, by Mr 

 Fentland. 



VOL. XVI. NO. XXXI,— JANUARY 18S4. A 



