Notice of Alexander Volta. 15 
piitanibads from east to west, t owards the equator. Now 
every thing conspires to prove the correctness of this suppo- 
sition. has discovered by means of the piles, that all 
bodies which we call earthy, are metallic oxides ; it is, then 
probable that below the oxidized crust of our globe, there 
are metals in a pure state, which are commana, _— upon 
by the surrounding agents, such as water, and we have thus 
an active source of electric naigegni. on which the pach ro- 
tation tends to impress a determined direction. 
at an admirable connexion does the explanation of 
M. ere, which we have just presen nie. ies ibit. It is 
the pile which teaches us that an electric ent is under 
the influence of the earth; it is the pile which" teaches us 
that all the substances of which the earth is composed, are 
metallic oxides; these two facts which at first view, have 
no other relation to each other, than that of arising from the 
same source, are found, by an ingenious theory, to have an 
intimate application to each other. 
If we were to enumerate all the services which the pile 
has rendered to science, we should be obliged to surpass the 
arches of 
Savary relative to the cog remarkable phenomena which he 
has discovered in the magnetism of teal by electric dischar 
ges, and that we cannot dwell upon other numerous experi- 
ments made by philosophers of various countries. The 
going account is sufficient, we think, to shew what an inex- 
haustible mine of rich discoveries Volta has put into the 
hands of. experimenters, in giving them the pile, and conse- 
quently, what legitimate claims he has upon their gratitude 
nd their regrets. | 
It was our wish in terminating this article, to give some 
details relative to the life of Volta; but. the journal from 
which we derived the article which ‘has served as a text to 
the developments we ese .ae given, gives us very little in- 
formation on that subjec 
