52 Kciv Galvanic Discoiieries. 



tractions are excited. I had put a louisthvis galvanised inAo 

 mv pocket, and M. Ritter said to nie a lew nunules after, 

 that I might findoiit this louis f'romaniong the rest, by try- 

 ing them ill succession upon tl>e frog. Accordingly I made 

 the trial, and acfuallv distinguished, among several others, 

 a single one, in which the exciting (juality was very evident. 

 This charge is retained in proportion to the time that the 

 piece has remained in the circuit of the pile. Of three dif- 

 ferent louis which M. Ritter charged in mv presence, nei- 

 ther lost its chcu-ge in less than five minutes. These expe- 

 riments succeeded completelv, and nothing seemed so easy 

 as to repeat them. 



A metal thus retaining the galvanic charge, though in 

 contact w itii the hand and with other metals, shows that 

 this connnunicalion of the galvanic virtue has n)ore affinity 

 with magnetism than with electricity, and assigns io the 

 galvanic fluid an intermediate rank between these two. 



JNl. Ritlcrcan, in the way I luuejust described, charge 

 at once anv number of pieces. It it only necessary that 

 the two extreme pieces of the number communicate with 

 the pile through the intervention of wet pasteboards. It is 

 with metallic discs charged in this manner, and placed 

 npon one another with pieces of wet pasteboard alteruatelv 

 interposed, that M. Ritter constructs his charging pile, 

 which ought in remembrance of its inventor to be called the 

 K'tfcr'ian pile. The construction of this pile shows, that 

 each metal galvanised in this way acquires polaritv, as the 

 needle docs when touch.'d with a ma<i;nct. Though I have 

 had no opportunity of seeing thi^ new pile, [ have convin- 

 ced mvself of the reality of the phaMiomcnon by au experi- 

 ment of the highest importance to science, and for the in- 

 vention of whidi we are equally indebted to the same inge- 

 nious philosopher. 



M. Ritter, in his numerous experiments on the excitation 

 ])roduced in the frog bv the contact of two ditl'erent metals, 

 (for he has not entirely abandoned the original mode of 

 galvanising, like most other experimentalists, who employ 

 \\)lta's pile exclusively,) had perceived not only a very 

 strikniir difference in the excitability of the different parts 

 of animals, but also adilTcrence of excitement between the 

 extensor and flexor muscles, according as the positive or 

 negative pole was applied to them, or as they were acted 

 npon the instant after the metals were brought into contact 

 or separated from each other. 



When the excitability is at its highest jioint of energy, as 

 in very \oung frogs the moment after they are prepared, or 



ii> 



