wae 
4 
134 Crosse’s Experiments with the Voltaic Battery. 
these experiments, by passing a stream of electricity through eyl- 
inders filled with various fluids under a glass receiver inverted 
over mercury, the greatest possible care being taken to shut out 
extraneous matter. Should there’be those who blame me for not 
having done this before, to such I answer that, independent of a 
host of other hindrances, which it is not in my power to set aside, 
I have been closely pursuing a long train of experiments on the 
formation of crystalline matters by the electric agency, and now 
different modifications of the Voltaic battery; in which I am so 
interested, that none but the ardent can conceive what is not in 
my power to describe. 
2dly. These insects do not appear to have sidesinaneil from oth- 
ers similar to themselves, as they are formed in all cases with ac- 
cess of moisture, and in some cases two inches below the surface 
of the fluid in which they are born; and if a full grown and per- 
font: insect be let fall into any fluid, ‘it is infallibly drowned. 
-Bdly. I believe they live for many weeks: occasionally I have 
found them dead in groups, apparently from want of food. za 
Athly. It has been frequently suggested to me to repeat thiese 
experiments without using the electric agency; but this would 
be by no means satisfactory, let the event be what it would. It 
is well known that saline matters are easily crystallized without — 
subjecting them to the electric action; but it by no means fol- 
lows that, because artificial electricity i a not applied, such erystals 
are formed without the electric influence. I have made so many 
ical erystallization, that I am firmly convin- 
ced in my own mind, that electric attraction is the cause of the 
formation of every crystal; whether artificial electricity be applied 
-or not. Iam, however, well aware of the difficulty of getting 
__ at the truth in these matters, and of separating cause from ‘effect. 
~ It has often occurred to me, how it is that such numbers of ani- 
malcules are produced in flour and water, in pepper and water? 
also, the insects which infest fruit trees after a blight? | Does not 
a chemical change take place in the water, and: likewise in the 
sap of the tree previous to the appearance of these insects, and 1s 
or is not every chemical change produced by electric agency ? 
In making these observations I seek to mislead no one. The 
book of nature is opened wide to our view by the Almighty 
power, and we must endeavor, as far as our feeble faculties will 
poneeipaaenNaNN, Sonik stent; always reme membering, that 
