Eloge of Alexander Volta. 9 



ing doubt. On the 10th May 175S, during a storm, the large 

 pointed rod of metal, which he had placed in a garden at Marly- 

 la-ville, produced small sparks, like the conductor of an electri- 

 cal machine when an iron wire is applied to it. Franklin did 

 not realise this experiment in the United States, by means of a 

 kite, till a month later. Paralonnerres or conductors were the 

 immediate result of this discovery, which the illustrious Ameri- 

 can hastened to proclaim to the world. 



That part of the public which is reduced to the necessity of 

 judging of matters of science on hearsay, seldom pronounce on 

 the merits of any discovery by halves. They admit or reject, 

 if I may so speak, with passionate eagerness. Conductors, 

 for example, became the objects of a remarkable enthusiasm, the 

 traces of which it is curious to remark in the writings of the 

 time. Here you will find travellers who, in a flat country, 

 imagine they can conjure the lightning by raising their sword 

 against the clouds, in the attitude of Ajax threatening the gods ; 

 there ecclesiastics, whose costume does not admit of a sword, 

 bitterly regret being deprived of this talismanic preserver; 

 one seriously proposes as an infallible preservative, to place 

 one's self under a gutter, seeing that wet cloth is an excellent 

 conductor of electricity ; while another invents certain head- 

 dresses, from which are suspended long metallic chains, which 

 care must be taken to drag in the water, &c. &c. Some men of 

 science, it must be acknowledged, did not participate in this 

 absurdity. They admitted the identity of lightning and the 

 electrical fluid, the experiment of Marly-la-ville having afford- 

 ed decisive proof of this ; but the sparks emitted by the rod 

 were so few and small, that there was doubt whether it were 

 possible to draw off by this means the immense quantity 

 of fulminating matter with which a cloud must be charged. 

 The experiment made by Romas de Nerac, did not overcome 

 their opposition, because this observer had employed a kite 

 with a metallic cord, which reached the region of the clouds. 

 Soon, however, the lamentable death of Richman (on the 6th 

 August 1753), occasioned by a simple discharge from an insu- 

 lated bar, w^hich this distinguished man had placed on his house 

 at St Petersburgh, threw new light on the subject. In his tra- 

 gical end, the learned saw an explanation of a passage, in which 



