3B2 Eloffe qf Alexander Volta. 



the properties which he himself discovered, and those that w« 

 owe to his successors. 



It will readily be perceived, from the little that I have said 

 regarding the composition of the pile, that the two extremities 

 are necessarily dissimilar ; that is, if there be zinc at the base, 

 there will be copper at the top, and vice versa. These two ex* 

 tremities are called the poles. 



Let us suppose that two wires are attached to the opposite 

 poles, copper and zi«c, of a voltaic pile. The apparatus, in 

 this form, is adapted to the different experiments which I wish 

 to enumerate. When a person takes hold of one of these wires, 

 he is not sensible of any effect ; but no sooner does he touch 

 both than he experiences a violent shock. This, it will be seen, 

 is the phenomenon of the famous Leyden jar, which, in 1746, 

 excited to such a degree the admiration of Europe. But the 

 jar could be used only once, and required to be recharged after 

 every trial. The pile, on the contrary, yielded a thousand 

 shocks in succession. It may therefore be compared to the 

 Leyden jar in the nature of its effects, if the latter suddenly 

 recovered its first condition after each discharge. 



If the wire which is attached to the zinc pole be placed on 

 the tip of the tongue, and the wire of the copper pole on an- 

 other part of the tongue, a very decided acid taste will be felt. 

 In order to vary the nature of this taste, and make it become 

 alkaline, it is necessary only to change the situation of the two 

 wires. 



The sense of sight is not exempted from the influence of this 

 protean instrument. Here the phenomenon appears the more 

 singular, as the luminous sensation is excited without the neces- 

 sity of touching the eye. When the end of one of the wires 

 is applied to the forehead, the cheeks, the nose, the chin, or even 

 the throat, at the instant the observer seizes the other wire 

 with his hand, he perceives, although his eyes are closed, a light 

 which varies in form and brilliancy according to the part of the 

 face the electrical fluid attacks. 



By analogous combinations sounds are produced in the ear. 

 It is not on organs in a healthy state alone that the pile acts; 

 it excites, and seems to reanimate, those in which life appears 



