•26 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1750. 



therein contained. Mr. Angelo Quirini, a Venetian gentleman, a great friend 

 to the sciences, accordingly acquainted M. Pivati ; and on the 1st of August, 

 1749, we waited on him, and found there a large company, among which were 

 several persons of distinction : among others were Mr. Antony Mossinigo, here- 

 tofore embassador in France, Abbe Horter, &c. At the sight of this great as- 

 sembly he believed that his curiosity had been suspected of disbelief, and of an 

 obstinacy to doubt ; this company therefore was called together to be an evidence 

 of his conviction. But how great were his surprize and regret, when M. Pivati 

 declared in the presence of this whole company, that he would not attempt to 

 show Mr. N. the transmission of odours; that that phenomenon had not suc- 

 ceeded but once or twice, as he had said in his first letter printed at Lucca, 

 though since that he had made many attempts to repeat that experiment, with 

 the same as well as with other glasses ; that this cylinder had been since broken ; 

 and that he had not so much as kept the fragments of it ! 



But at least, Mr. N. said he wished to see him use one of his medicated tubes, 

 and weigh it before and after electrifying, to see the included matter diminish 

 sensibly. This fact Mr. P. then said had succeeded vidth him a great many times ; 

 but that now there was too much company ; that it was too hot, and in conse- 

 quence that the electricity would be too weak for it. He might perhaps be in 

 the right : but why did he call together so numerous a company ? Mr. N. then 

 asked him concerning the cures related in his works, and especially concerning 

 that of the bishop of Sebenico. He acknowledged, (and in part Mr. N. knew 

 it already,) that the prelate was not cured; and that since the electrification he 

 had been as he was before. 



Mr. N. took his leave of M. Pivati, and acquainted him, that he proposed to 

 continue about a week in Venice ; and he very earnestly begged of him to col- 

 lect together his best vessels, to renew the substances in them, and to let him 

 know, that if they succeeded, he might wait upon him, that he might be able to 

 publish them as an eye-witness, &c. M. Pivati promised him he would ; but, as 

 Mr. N. heard nothing from him afterwards, he presumed that he had nothing 

 to show him. 



Mr. Nollet then relates a number of other trials that he had seen, and that 

 had been told him by different persons, in several other parts of Italy, much to 

 the same purport as the foregoing : from all which he draws a conclusion to the 

 following purport. That he learned nothing in the other cities of Italy, which 

 did not strengthen his doubts in regard to those electrical phenomena, which he 

 had a desire to verify in the course of his travels. Pere la Torre, professor of 

 philosophy at Naples ; M. de la Garde, director of the coinage at Florence, one 

 who has been much engaged in these inquiries ; M. Guadagni, professor of ex- 

 perimental philosophy at Pisa ; the Marquis MafFei, at Verona ; Dr. Cornelio, 



