86 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



of Italy by Bonaparte, in 1801. France was, at the 

 period of these discoveries, separated from all other 

 countries by war, and especially from England 5 , 

 where Volta's Memoirs were published. 



The political revolutions of Italy affected, in very 

 different manners, the two discoverers of whom we 

 speak. Galvani refused to take an oath of alle- 

 giance to the Cisalpine republic, which the French 

 conqueror established ; he was consequently stripped 

 of all his offices ; and, deprived, by the calamities 

 of the times, of most of his relations, he sank into 

 poverty, melancholy, and debility. At last his scien- 

 tific reputation induced the republican rulers to 

 decree his restoration to his professorial chair ; but 

 his claims were recognized too late, and he died 

 without profiting by this intended favour, in 1798. 



Volta, on the other hand, was called to Paris by 

 Bonaparte as a man of science, and invested with 

 honours, emoluments, and titles. The conqueror 

 himself, indeed, was strongly interested by this train 

 of research *. He himself founded valuable prizes, 

 expressly with a few to promote its prosecution. 

 At this period, there was something in this subject 

 peculiarly attractive to his Italian mind; for the 

 first glimpses of discoveries of great promise have 

 always excited an enthusiastic activity of specula- 

 tion in the philosophers of Italy, though generally 

 accompanied with a want of precise thought. It is 



3 Biog. Univ., art. Volta, (by Biot.) 

 * Becquerel, Traite d'Eleclr.t.i. p. 107- 



