,290 On the Eledricity excited by the 



to itj and becaufe, inftead of confiding, like the common 

 eleftric jars and batteries, of one or more infulating plates 

 or thin ftrata of tHofe bodies which are alone thought to be 

 eleSlric, armed with condii<Sors, or bodies called 7ion-cIe£lricj 

 this new apparatus is formed merely of feveral of the latter 

 boflies, chofen from among thofd which are the beft con- 

 du6tors, and therefore the moft remote, as has hitherto been 

 believed, from the eleftric nature. The apparatus to which 

 I allude, and which will, no doubt, aftonifh you, is only the 

 afletiiblage of a number of good conductors of diflerent kinds 

 arranged in a certain manner. Thirty, forty, fixty, or more 

 pieces of copper, or rather filver, applied each to a piece of 

 tin, or zinc, which is much better, snd as many ftrata of 

 water, or any other liquid which may be a better conduftor, 

 fuch as fait water, ley, 8ce. Or pieces of pafteboard, fkin, &c. 

 well foakcd in thefe liquids ; fuch ftrata intcrpofed between 

 every pair or combination of twodiffei^ent metals in an alternate 

 feries, and always in the fame order of thefe three kinds of 

 conduftors, are all that is neceflary for conftituting my new 

 ihftrumcrlt, which, as T have faid, imitates the effe<Sls of the 

 Lfcyden flafk, or of elcftric batteries, by communicating the 

 fame ftiock as thefe do; but which, indeed, is far inferior to 

 the aftivily of thefe batteries wheii highly charged, cither in 

 regard to the ftjrce and noife of the e'xplofions, the fpark, the 

 diftaiice at which the difchlrge may be effcftcd, &c. as it 

 equals oillv the eflcfts of a batter'y very weakly charged, 

 though of immenfe Capacity : in other rcfpefts, however, it- 

 far furpalfes the virtue and power of thefe batteries, as it lias 

 no iieed, like thefe, of being prcvioufly charged by means of 

 foreign eleftricity, and as it is capable of giving a Ihock 

 every time it is properly touched, however often it may be. 



To this apparatus, riiuch more fimilar at bottom, as I fliall 

 fliovv, and even fuch as I have coudrucled it, in its form to 

 the natural eleBtic organ of the toi'pedo Or elcclric eel, &c. 

 than to the Leyden flalk and eleflric batteries, I would wifti 

 to p-ive the name of the artijici.il ele6lric organ : anci, indeed, 

 is it not, like it, cOmpofed entirely of conducting bodies?' 

 Is it not alfo aftive of itfelf without any previous chargers 

 without the aid of any ele6tricity excited by any of the means 



hitherto 



