46 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



placed at the ends beyond the reach of the fluid. 

 Most of the phenomena of common electricity had 

 been imitated by the electricity of the pile, except 



r.autherot that of attraction ; and Gautherot at length sue- 

 on galvanic ' 



attraction, ceeded in contriving an apparatus for producing 

 this effect. It consisted of two delicate wires, 

 which hung loose from the extremities of the 

 pile; when they were brought near together, a 

 sensible approximation was perceived, and they 

 were found to adhere with a sensible degree of 

 force.* 



Voita de- it does not appear that Volta himself partici- 



fends the 



electrical pated, in any degree, in the various discoveries 

 Sls ' that were made by means of his apparatus, or that 

 he employed any means for improving or altering 

 its original form. He seems to have interested 

 himself solely in defending the hypothesis, which 

 he had proposed to account for its operation, and 

 which indeed may be considered as having led to 

 its construction. His opinion, that the primary 

 action was electrical, and that it depended en- 

 tirely or essentially upon a change in the distri- 

 bution of the electric fluid, had been called in ques- 

 tion by Mr. Nicholson, Dr. Wollaston, and other 

 English chemists, who were more disposed to refer 

 the effects to the chemical action of the fluid inter- 

 posed between the plates in oxidating the metals. 

 Volta, however, still adhered to his first opinion; and, 



in a paper written about this time, he lays it down 







* Ann. de Chim. xxxix. 205. 



