Nerv EliBrical or Galvanic Appafilns. l8i 



the lips and tongue were convulfcd, the flafli appeared before the eyes, and the tafte was 

 perceived in the mouth. 



Two blunt probes were inferted in the ears, and the (hock pafled through the head, 

 after which the communication was kept up. A peculiar found, like crackling or boiling, 

 was heard ; but the author did not think it prudent to make this experiment repeatedly. 



The fenfe of fmell could not be excited, becaufe, as Sig. V. remarks, this ele£lricity 

 cannot be made to dilTufe itfelf in the air. 



As the difcs become dry, and lofe their power, Sig. V. endeavoured to prevent this 

 efFe£l by indofing the column in wax or pitch, and in this he has fo far fucceeded, that 

 he has fitted up two columns of twenty pieces each, which have a^ed well for fome weeks, 

 and he hopes will for months. 



The combination, which he thinks the moft inftru£live, confifts of a row of glafles or 

 cups (not of metal) containing warm water or brine. Into ea'ch of thefe is plunged a plate 

 of zinc and another of filver, not touching each other. From thefe plates refpeftively pro- 

 ceed tails or prolongations, which communicate with or touch the plates of the outer glafles 

 in fuch a manner, that the zinc of the firft cup communicates with the filver of the 

 fecond ; the zinc of the fecond with the filver of the third ; the zinc of the third, &c. 

 progrefRvely and regularly through the whole row. The communication between the firft 

 and laft glafles gives the (hock, &c. The plates in the fluid are direfted to be about an 

 inch fquare ; but the contadls above the water may be as fmall as the operator pleafes. 



Sig. Volta makes honourable mention of my conje£tural theory of the torpedo *. After 

 remarking that my induftions were the moft probable that the exifting theory of eleftricity 

 could at that time afford, he proceeds to make various objedtions needlefs to be here 

 detailed, and then offers his own new and ftriking apparatus as more nearly refembling the 

 torpedinal organ. I need not anticipate the reader in the happy points of refemblance 

 between their ftrufture and effefts. 



Thus far I have followed this able philofopher ; who, to his former refearches into the 

 nature and laws of eleftricity, has now added a difcovery which muft for ever remove the 

 doubt whether galvanifm be an electrical phenomenon. But I cannot here look back 

 without fome furprize, and obferve that the chemical phenomena of galvanifm, which 

 had been much fo infifted on by Fabbroni f , more efpecially the rapid oxidation of the 

 zinc, fliould conftitute no part of his numerous obfervations. 



On the 30th of April, Mr. Carliflehad provided a pile confifting of 17 half crowns, with 

 a like number of pieces of zinc, and of pafteboard, foaked in fait water. Thefe were 

 arranged in the order of filver, zinc card, &c. which order I fliall denote by faying, that the 

 filver was undermoft, that is to fay, under the zinc ; and I make this remark becaufe fome 

 philofophers have ufed the exprefiion that the filver was undermoft when they ufed the 

 order of filver, card zinc, &c. which, as the reader will eafily perceive, is contrary to the 

 order here fpoken of. This is of no confequence to the effect, though it is material to a 



• Philofophical Journal, I. 358. t Philofophical Journal, IV, lao; 



clear 



