^oo On the ElrSlnci'v excited by the 



tions in one or more places, and to produce there the 

 requifito contaft, either by compreffing thefe columns, or bv 

 making fome moifture to flow in between the pellicles or 

 diaphragms which hr.ve bee n feparated, &c. This is what may' 

 be, and what I really conclude to be, the tafk of the torpedo 

 •when it gives a (liock; for all the reft, the inipulfe and move- 

 ment communicated to the elcftric fluid, is only a neceflary 

 effeft of its Angular organ, formed, as is feen, of a very nu- 

 merous feries of conduclors, which I have every reafon to 

 believe fufficiently different from each other to be exciters 

 of the eleftric fluid by their mutual contafts; and to fuppofe 

 them ranged in a manner proper for impelling that fluid 

 with a fufficient force from top to bottom, or from the 

 bottom to the top, and for determining a current capable of 

 producing the fliock, &c. as foon and as often as all the ne- 

 ceflary contafts and communications take place. 



But let us now leave the torpedo, and its natural electric 

 orga?i, and return to the artijicial electric organ of my in- 

 vention, and particularly to my firft colmnnar apparatus, that 

 which imitates the firfl; even in its form (for that compofed 

 of tumblers is different in that refpe6l). I might fiiv fomt- 

 thing alfo in regard to the confl:ru61;ion of the faid apparatus 

 with tumblers or a chain of glafj'fs ; for example, that the firfl 

 and lafl: tumbler fliould be of fuch a fize that, when nccef- 

 fary, the whole hand might be immerfed in it, &c. ; but, to 

 enter into all thefe details, would require too much time. 



In regard to the columnar apparatus, I endeavoured to dif- 

 cover the uieans of lengthening it a irvtat deal bv muliiplving 

 the metallic plates in luch a manner as not to tumbledown'; 

 and I difcovc'.od, beiidcs others, the tollowinc, which are 

 reprefented in the annexed figures. (PlateMlI. fig. 2,3,4.) 



In Fig. 2, mmmm are rods, three, four, or more in num- 

 ber, which rife from the bottom of the column, and confine, 

 as in a cage, the plates or didcs, placed each above the other 

 in fuch number and to fuch a height as you choofe, and 

 which thus prevent them from faHinjr. The rods may be of 

 glais. wood, or metal, only that, in the lafl cafe, you mufc 

 prevent them from coming into immediate coiilacl. with the 

 plates; which niay be done either bv covering each of them 



