Volta on Animal Ele^rlcity. I^g 



v!th two metals of a different kind and a fluid, is alreadv 

 known. I took a bafon of tin (one of zinc is better), placed 

 it on a filver ftand, and filled it with water. Wlien any of the 

 perfons in company applied the tip of his tongue to the wa- 

 ter, he found it perfectly tallelefs as long as he did not touch, 

 the filver ftand ; but as foon as he laid hold of the ftand, and 

 grafped it in his hands well moiftened, he experienced oa 

 the tongue a very perceptible and pretty ftrong acid tafte. This 

 experiment will fucceed, though the effeft is proportionably 

 weaker, with a chain of feveral perfons who hold each other^a 

 hands, after they have been moiftened with water, while the 

 firft applies the tip nf his tongue to the water in the bafon, 

 and the laft lays hold with his hands of the filver ftand. 



If thefe experiments, in regard to the tafte excited on the 

 tongue by the action of two different metals, are ftriking, the 

 others, in regard to the tafte excited, modified and changed 

 by one metal between two different fluids, are no lefs fo, and 

 they are alfo newer. They are ftill intercfting on this ac- 

 count, that they difcover to us the caufe of that tafte often 

 perceived in water and other liquids, \\ hich is more or lefi 

 confiderable or various when drunk from veffcls of metal, 

 and particularly of tin. When the outer extremity of the 

 veffel is applied to the under lip, rendered moift by the Ikliva, 

 and the tongue is extended fo as to be in conta6l with the 

 water, beer, wine, See. in the velfcl, or when the tongue is 

 bent as is done in drinking, is there not then a complete cir- 

 cle, ana is not the metal between two more or lefs different 

 liquids, that is, between thefaliva of the under lip and the 

 liquor in the cup or veffel ? A ftronger or weaker elc6lric 

 dream muft thereby be occafioned aacording as the fluids 

 are difiirrent — a ftream which will not fail in its way to 

 affeft the fcnfible organs of the tongue in the faid circle. 



Befidts the t.vo methods already confidercd, of producing 

 an clcftnc current, that is, by means of one or more moift 

 conduAors, or conductors of the fecond clafs, placed be- 

 tween two different metals or conduiStors of the firft clafs ; 



or 



