5g8 On the EleSlricify e.rclfed h the 



cleftric current is applied, be varied: if it be on the fore- 

 head, for example, this light is moderately bright, and ap- 

 pears like a luminous circle, under which figure it prefents 

 itfelf alio in feveral other experiment?. 



But the moft curious of all thefe expcrinients is, to hold 

 the metallic plate between the lips, and in contaft with the 

 tip of the tongue ; fince, when you afterwards complete the 

 circle in the proper manner, you excite at once, if the appa- 

 ratus be fuiFiciently large and in good order, and the eleiitrip 

 current fufliciently itrong and in good order, a fenfation of 

 light \v\ the eyes, a convulfion in the lips, and even in the 

 tongue, and a painful prick at the tip of it, followed by p. 

 fenldtinn of tafte. 



I have now only to fay a fpw words on hearing. This 

 fonfe, which I had in vain tried to excite with only two 

 metallic plates, though the mod aiStive of all the exciters of 

 elcftricitv, vi^. one of filver or gold, and the other of zinc^ 

 I was at length a:ble to affe6l it with my new apparatus, conir 

 pofed of 30 or 40 pairs of thefe metals. I introduced, a con- 

 ficlerable way into both ears, two probes or metallic rods 

 witt| their ends rounded, and I made them to communicate 

 jniniediately with both extremities of the apparatus. At the 

 moment when the circle was thus completed I received a. 

 {hopk in the head, and fome moments after (the comniuni- 

 ration continuing without any interruption) I began to hear 

 a found, or rather noife, jn the ears, which I cannot well 

 define : it was a kind of crackling with fhocks, as if fome 

 palle or tenacious matter had been boiling. This noife con- 

 tinued inceflantly, and without increafing, all the time that 

 the circle was complete, &c. The difagreeable fenfation, ancl 

 which r apprehended might be dangerous, of tjie fliock in the 

 brain, prevented me from repeating this experiment. 



There ftill remains the feufe of fmelling, which I have 

 Jiitherto tried in vain \vith my apparatus. The electric fluid, 

 >vhich, wheri made to flovy in a current in a, complete circle 

 of condqflofs, produces in thp limtts and parts of the living 

 body effefls correfj^oudcnt to their excitability, which fiimu- 

 lating in particular the organs or nerves of touch, tafte, fight, 

 ^^>4 hP^ring, excite iii them fome fenfations peculiar tg each pf 



thef$ 



