^tS Report to the French National InjTilute 



We havefuppofed that the moift paftcboards placed between 

 the elements of the pile are moiltened with pure water. If 

 inftead of water a falinc folution be eniploved, the fliock will 

 become incomparably ftronger; but the tenfion indicated by 

 the eletlrometer does not appear to increafe in the fame 

 ratio. C. Volta has proved to us this faA bv the help of his 

 apparatus formed of cups, by pouring fucceflivelv into them 

 pure water and acidulous wat^r. 



He concludes from this experiment that acids and faline 

 folutions favour the aolioiv of the pile, chieHv becaufe they 

 increafe the conducing property of the water with which 

 the pafteboard is nioiftened. In regard to the oxidation, he 

 confiders it as an efl'eft which eftablifhes a more intimate 

 connexion between the elements of the pile, and thus con- 

 tributes to render its action more energetic. 



Such nearly is the fubllance of the ihcorv of C. Volta re- 

 fpefting that elecl:ricity called gulvanic. His object has been 

 to reduce all the phtenomena of it to one, the exiftence of 

 which is now fully confirmed ; it is the development of me- 

 tallic electricity by the mutual contact of metals. It fcenis 

 to be proved by thefe experiments, that the peculiar fluid to 

 which muicular contractions and the phienoniena of the pile 

 were for fome time afcribcd, is nothing elfe than the conjmon 

 eteftric fluid put in motion by a cauTe refpecling the nature 

 of which we are ignorant, though we fee its eflecls. 



Such is the fate of the fciences, that the moft brilliant dif- 

 coveries only open a more extenlive field for new refearches. 

 After having afcertained and ellimatcd, as we may fay, by 

 approximation the nuitual a6lion of the metallic elements, 

 it remains to determine it in a rigorous manner, to difcover 

 whether it is conltant for the lame metals, or whether it 

 varies with the quantities of eleclricitv thev contain, and with 

 their temperature. We mult afcertain with the fame pre- 

 cifion the peculiar aftion which the liquid^ exercife on each 

 other and on the metals. It will be then that we can efta- 

 blifli our calculation on exacl data; that we can difcover the 

 real law followed by the diftribution and motion of the elec- 

 tricity in Volta's apparatus, and complete the explanation 

 of all the phaenomena it exhibits. But thefe nice refearches 

 require inllruments more corret!:! than any yet invented by 

 pbilofophers to meafure the force of the electric matter. 



In a word, it remains to examine the chemical effects of 

 the current of eleetricity, its acJ'lion on the animal economy, 

 and its relation with the eleftricitv of miner-als and lifhes; 

 refearches which, from the fadts already known, cannot fail 

 to be of very gr^at importance. 



When 



