1 86 Galvanic Society ^ Paris. 



wires communicate with the two poles of the pilej this 

 communication may be interrupted, and yet the wires will 

 excite a decided taste, and perhaps a slight commotion, and 

 will even produce the decomposition of water. This experi- 

 ment demonstrates the presence of the Galvanic fluid in an 

 apparatus by no means proper to form it. 



** If we plunge the two extremities of a single wire of pla- 

 tina in the extreme cups of the disk apparatus, and if we 

 bring these two ends near together, but without meeting, 

 and carry them to the mouth, we experience a Galvanic 

 taste, the more decided in proportion as the diameter of the 

 wire is more considerable." 



The discovery made by this author, and the importance of 

 which be has represented, ought to become, to use his own 

 M'ords, " the source or basis of several other experiments, 

 and concur, more than any other, to the discovery of the 

 theory of this new branch of physics." 



Treading in the footsteps of Gautherot, M. Ritter has pro- 

 ceeded a step further, in ascertaining that bodies which form 

 f. part of a Galvanic arc, pass, upon quitting it, into an op- 

 posite state from that which they formerly held, in such a 

 manner, that the side, which during the communication was 

 positive, becomes negative when it ceases, and so on, vice 

 versa. This remark conducted him to the construction of 

 a secondary or charging pile, — a happy invention, which 

 forms an epoch in the history of Galvanism. 



This pile is formed of disks of a simple metal, such as 

 copper, and of an equal number of cards well saturated with 

 water. It is raised on an ordinary support, by alternately 

 laying on the disks of copper and the rounds of wet card. 

 The \rhole is kept steady by means of glass rods. 



The pile, constructed in this manner, by itself produces 

 no perceptible phaenomena ; but placed for a few minutes in 

 communication with the Volta's pile, it acquires the proper- 

 ties of that pile, displays an electrical tension, evinces com- 

 motion, and gives sensations of light, taste, and other Gal* 

 vanic phaenomena in the same manner. 



The society -esolved to ascertain the effects of this se- 

 condary pile, with all the modifications which its construc- 

 tion 



