Memwirs of the Life of Lewis Brugnatelli. 323 
Brugnatelli must be noticed his opinion respecting the chemical 
action of the electric fluid, which he published so early as 1800, in 
his § Memoir on oxyelectrics,’ inserted in his Annali di Chimica, 
vol. xviii. In his ‘Galvanic observations’ published in the same 
work and in the Memoirs of the Italian Institute, he opposed 
decidedly the supposed formation of muriatic acid at the expense 
of water as observed by Pacchiani, remarking that this acid de- 
pended on other substances preexisting inthe water. By these 
and other observations he made some progress towards those 
discoveries which have immortalized the name of Davy, who on 
his part did not fail to cite with great care and merited appro- 
bation the previous experiments of the Pavian chemist. 
Professor Brugnatelli. being at Paris in 1801, and in company 
with Volta, he mentioned the fact that various substances are 
transported by the electric fluid, in presence of the French che- 
mists. and philosophers, all of whom smiled, saying, “* The 
thing is impossible, that an imponderable body should transport 
ponderable substances.” So far had the Italian chemist, as usual, 
anticipated the knowledge of the progress of chemical discovery, 
even in the French capital, where his experiments and discoveries 
were so novel and singular that they were boldly and thought- 
lessly_ disbelieved, instead of being investigated, verified or dis- 
proved. The Pavian Professor, however, had previously proposed 
a modification or a reform of the new chemical nomenclature ; 
and as the greater part of the nomenclaturists were then living, 
it was the easiest and most effectual mode of avoiding difficulties 
by totally disbelieving both the chemical and literary novelties. 
In 1806 he read a Memoir in the hall of the University ‘On the 
decomposition of salts effected by electricity,’ which was after- 
wards printed in the first volume of his Giornale. 
To detail with sufficient accuracy his numerous discoveries in 
pneumatic, vegetable and animal chemistry, would greatly exceed 
the limits prescribed to this brief memoir: to those pursuing si- 
milar inguiries, the subjoined list of his original works, copied 
from the Giornale di Fisica, (edited by his son Dr. Caspar B.) 
may be useful. It may likewise be proper to notice here that he 
discovered uric acid in the excrement of silkworms, free lime in 
rhubarb, and carbonate of lime in the urinary calculi of hogs, and 
more recently in those of men. His numerous experiments and 
researches appear in a posthumous ‘ Memoir on urinary calculi,’ 
which is just published, and which abounds in new facts and ob- 
servations, the result of great industry and extensive knowledge, 
derived from a vast collection of calculi, designs of which accom- 
pany the work, Among his researches in vegetable chemistry 
should be recorded his Experiments on Coffee-berries, which be- 
ing steeped some time in a solution of soda, displayed a beautiful 
X 2 emerald 
