iiiere Conlait of conduBlng Sutjiailces. ^05 



the experiments, equally and ftill more demondrative and 

 ftriking, with which I am at prefent employed. 



In regard to the fenle of tafte, I had before difcovered, ahd 

 publiftied in thefe firft memoirs^ where I found myfelf obliged 

 to combat the pretended animal elcAricity of Galvani, and to 

 declare it an external elfeclricitv moved by the mutual cohla(A 

 of metals of different kinds, — I had difcovered, I fav, iii con- 

 fcquence of this power which I afcribed to rhetals, thdt twd 

 pieces of thefe different metals, and particularly one of filver 

 find one of zinc, applied iii a proper riianner, excited at the 

 tip of the tongue very fenfible fenfatiouj of tattc ; that the 

 tafte was decidedly acid, if, the tip of the tongue being turned 

 towards the zinc, the eleftric current proceeded againft if, 

 and entered it; and that another tafte, Icfs ftrong but more 

 difagreeable, acrid, and inclining to alkaline, waS felt. If (tha 

 pofition of the metals being reverfed) the eleftric current 

 iffued from the tip of the tongue ; that thefe lenfations con- 

 tinued and received even an increafe for ieveral feconds, if 

 the mutual contafih of the two metals was maintained, and if 

 the conducing circle was nowhere interrupted. But wheii 

 I have faid here, that exactly the fame phenomenal takd 

 place when you try, inltead of one pair of thefe metallic 

 pieces, an affemblage of feveral of them ranged In the proper 

 hianner; and that the faid fenfations of tafte, whether acid 

 or alkaline, irlereafe but a little with the number of thefe 

 pairs, I have faid the whole. It only remains for rhe to add 

 that, if the apparatus put in play for thefe experiments on 

 the tongue be formed of a fufficiently large iiunibcr of me- 

 tallic pairs of this kind^ for example, if it contain 30, 4O5 

 or more, the tongue experiences not otily the fenfation of 

 tafte already mentioned, but, befides that, a blow which it 

 receives at the moment when the circle is completed^ and 

 tvhlch occftfions in it a pricking more or left painful, but 

 jHecting, followed fome moments after by a durable fenfatiori 

 of tafte. This blow produces even t cbnvulfion or agitation 

 of a part or of the whole of the tongue; when the apparatusj 

 formed of a ftill greater number of pairs of the laid ttietalsj 

 Is more active, and if, by means of good eomhiiillicatiilg 



Vol. VI 1 4 H r feondudoM^ 



