EULOGY ON ALEXANDER VOLTA. 125 



gravity iu wbicb he nsually indulged. He tried to euliveu the subject 

 at the expense of tbe erudite, who, like tbe famous Dietens, always 

 found, but after tbe event, tbe discovery of tbeir contemporaries in 

 some ancient author. He begged, then, in this instance, to go back to 

 tbe fabulous times of tbe Greeks and Eomans, and directed tbeir 

 attention to the sacrifices in the 0])en air, tbe dazzling flames on tbe 

 altars, the black columns of smoke which ascended into the air from 

 tbe bodies of tbe victims ; finally, to all the circumstances of those 

 ceremonies which the ignorant believe were intended to appease the 

 wrath of the gods, and to foil Jupiter's fulminating arm. All this 

 could be but a mere experiment in physics, alone understood by the 

 }>riests, and designed to restore silently to tbe earth the electricity of 

 tbe air and clouds. The Greeks and Eomans, during the most brilliant 

 periods of their history, sacrificed, it is true, in closed temples; but, 

 added Volta, this difliculty is not without its solution, as it may be 

 said that Pythagoras, Aristotle, Cicero, Tliny, and Seneca were igno- 

 rant fellows, who, even according to simple tradition, did not possess 

 the scientific knowledge of their predecessors. No criticism could be 

 more cutting ; but, to have any effect, it would be necessary to forget 

 that the Zoileans, iu all ages, who ransack musty books for the first 

 rudiments, true or false, of great discoveries, are less eager to honor 

 the dead than to bring discredit upon tbeir contemporaries. 



Nearly all physicists ascril)e electrical phenomena to two fluids of 

 different natures, which, under certain circumstances, accumulate sepa- 

 rately on tbe surface of bodies. This hypothesis naturally led to an 

 investigation into tbe source from which atmospheric electricity ema- 

 nates. The problem was important. A delicate, though very simple, 

 experiment led to its solution. 



In this experiment, an insulated vessel from which tbe water could 

 evaporate, gave, with the assistance of Volta's condenser, very mani- 

 fest indications of negative electricit}'. 



I regret my inability to announce, with any degree of certainty, to 

 whom to ascribe this capital experiment. Volta relates in one of his 

 treatises that he had been thinking of this since 177S, but various cir- 

 cumstances having prevented bis attempting it, it was not until 1780, 

 in Paris, in the month of March, in company with several members of 

 the Academy- of Science, that he was finally successful. On tbe other 

 hand, Lavoisier and Laplace, in the last line of the treatise published 

 by them on the same subject, merely remarked : Volta was anxious to 

 be present at our experiment and onale himself useful to us. 



llow shall we reconcile these two very contradictory statements f A 

 historical note, published by Volta himself, is far from dispelling these 

 doubts. This note, attentively examined, does not expressly state who 

 originated the idea of the experiment, nor which one of the three physi- 

 cists suggested that it might succeed with the aid of the condenser. 

 The first attempt, in Paris, by Volta and the two French scientists 



