112 THEORY OF GALVANISM. 



Action of After these general observations, which, scanty 



the pile. J 



and inconclusive as they are, appear to be all that 

 our present knowledge upon the subject will war- 

 rant, we must proceed to examine more minutely 

 into the nature of the action that is exercised by 

 the galvanic apparatus. From the remarks that 

 have been already made, it will be obvious, that 

 in the operation of the pile there are both electri- 

 cal and chemical phenomena produced ; and it has 

 been a point very warmly contended, which of 

 these is the most essential, or rather which of 

 them is the primary effect, and, consequently, is to 

 be considered as the cause of the other, and of the 

 whole train of actions. Volta, and most of the 

 continental philosophers, support the electrical hy- 

 pothesis ; while there are several distinguished ex- 

 perimentalists in this country who maintain, that 

 the chemical action is the one which gives rise to 

 all the changes that are produced, and therefore 

 constitutes the primary action of the instrument. 

 Voita sup. In all the experiments that were performed with 

 electric * the two metals, previous to the discovery of the 

 hypothesis> pile, with the exception of those of Fabroni, 

 which seem to have been but little attended to, the 

 only point in discussion was, whether the effects 

 were to be referred to the electric fluid, or to a 

 new agent inherent in the animal body. Volta 

 strenuously adopted the opinion, that they de- 

 pended simply upon common electricity ; and ac- 

 counted for them by supposing, that the contact of 

 the two metals had the power of altering the quantity 



