Ohj'crvaflons on Atihnal ElcSlrlclfy. ' 163 



In the 15th experiment the plants were not in the leaft 

 iftefted by the different oxyiJs ; which proves that plants, 

 like animals, iccm capable of bciiig accuftomcd to thing;; 

 pernicious to them, provided tiley begin at infancy. The 

 teans planted in earth nilxcd with the oxyd of quickfilver 

 grew up, but fo weak and ftunted that they could fcarcely 

 iae known. Thofe, ho\ve\er, which had been planted at the 

 fame time as the former in a mixture of earth and the oxyd 

 of lead, (liot up as ufual, and exceeded them in ftrength and 

 weight more than four tinlcs. 



in thcfe refcarchcs wc were at great pains to make fonie 

 comparative experiments, and we found that the plants h\ 

 thofe where no quickfilver was employed, lived a confider- 

 able time in a ftate of perfeiSL vegetation. Thefe refults we 

 give merely as fads, without attempting at prefent to ex- 

 plain them. A conriderable quantity of quickfilver placed 

 in a very confined atmofphere may be equally pernicious to 

 animal cxiftencc, as we think ourfelves authorifed to infer 

 from feveral experiments, the courfe of which the late feafort 

 of the year obliged us to fufpend, and from which it appears 

 that, in one point of view, things hurtful to animals are hurt- 

 ful alfo to plants. 



\'T1I. Ohfcrvahons on Aji'imal EhBricity; hehig the SuhJIance 



oftzLO Lctlersfrom A, VolTa to Profellbr GliEN. 



[Concluded fiom Page 6i>.] 



1 Ilk very confiderable diflcrcnce in regard to the quan- 

 tity of effeft in the before-mfcntioned experiments already 

 Ihcws, that if the cltelrlc flream excited by contact is 

 ltrf)ngeft towards a certain metal, when that metal is placed 

 between a certain fluid on the one fide, and another fluid on 

 the other, there are other fluids which produce a greater 

 effect with another kind of metal ; fo that it will be necef- 

 lary U) difcuver bv experiment the particular arrangement of 

 W 3 cond«6tori 



