t>istorB of Electrical Science. 13 



the table and had been in contact with the 

 machine. She accidentally touched one of 

 the frogs to the point of the scalpel, when, lo ! 

 the frog kicked, and the kick of that dead frog 

 changed the whole face of electrical science. 

 She called her husband and he repeated the 

 experiment, and also appropriated the dis- 

 covery as well, and lie has had the credit of it 

 ever since, when really his wife made the dis- 

 covery. Galvani supposed it to be animal 

 electricity and clung to that theory the rest 

 of his life, making many experiments and 

 publishing their results; but the discovery led 

 others to solve the problem. 



Alessandro Volta, a professor of natural 

 philosophy at Pavia, Italy, was, it must be 

 said, the founder of the science of galvanic or 

 voltaic electricity. Stimulated by the dis- 

 covery of Galvani he attributed the action of 

 the frog's muscles, not to animal electricity, 

 but to some chemical action between the 

 metals that touched it. To prove his theory, 

 he constructed a pile made of alternate layers 

 of zinc, copper, and a cloth or pasteboard sat- 

 urated in some saline solution. By repeating 

 these trios copper, zinc, and the saturated 

 cloth he attained a pile that would give a 

 powerful shock, [t if < ailed the Voltaic Pile. 



I have a clear idea of the construction of 

 this form of pile, founded on experience. It 

 was my habit when a boy to make everything 



