DAVY 167 



Electrical effects are exhibited by the same bodies, when acting as 

 masses, which produce chemical phenomena when acting by their 

 particles; it is not therefore improbable that the primary cause of 

 both may be the same, and that the same arrangements of matter, 

 or the same attracting powers, which place bodies in the relations of 

 positive and negative, i.e. which render them attractive of each other 

 electrically, and capable of communicating attractive powers to other 

 matter, may likewise render their particles attractive, and enable them 

 to combine, when they have full freedom of motion. . . . That the 

 decomposition of the chemical agents is connected with the energies of 

 the pile, is evident from all the experiments that have been made ; as 

 yet no sound objection has been urged against the theory that the con- 

 tact of the metals destroys the electrical equilibrium, and that the 

 chemical changes restore it, and, in consequence, that the action exists 

 as long as the decompositions continue. 



The Wollaston battery of two hundred cells was 

 constructed for Davy in 1807, and by it many brilliant 

 researches were performed, which excited the rivalry of 

 foreign savants. Among these were the investigations 

 of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, entitled Recherches Physico- 

 Chimiques, published in 1811, and in which are to be 

 found many remarkable observations on the physical and 

 chemical effects of the voltaic battery. 



Davy's brilliant researches with the Wollaston battery 

 caused Napoleon I. to have one constructed in 1813 for 

 the Ecole Polytechnique ; and one day the Emperor, 

 when speaking to Berthollet, said : " Pourquoi ces 

 decouvertes n'avaient pas ete faites en France." "Sire," 

 said Berthollet, " c'est que jusqu'a jour nous n'avons pas 

 possede* de pile voltaique assez puissante." Napoleon had 

 one constructed with six hundred cells (with elements of 



