CONFIRMATION OF VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 87 



narrated 5 of Bonaparte, that after seeing the de- 

 composition of the salts by means of the voltaic pile, 

 he turned to Corvisart, his physician, and said, 

 " Here, doctor, is the image of life ; the vertebral 

 column is the pile, the liver is the negative, the 

 bladder the positive, pole." The importance of 

 voltaic researches is not less than it was estimated 

 by Bonaparte ; but the results to which it was to 

 lead were of a kind altogether different from those 

 which thus suggested themselves to his mind. The 

 connexion of mechanical and chemical action was 

 the first great point to be dealt with ; and for this 

 purpose the laws of the mechanical action of voltaic 

 electricity were to be studied. 



It will readily be supposed that the voltaic re- 

 searches, thus begun, opened a number of interest- 

 ing topics of examination and discussion. These, 

 however, it does not belong to our place to dwell 

 upon at present ; since they formed parts of the 

 theory of the subject, which was not completed till 

 light had been thrown upon it from other quarters. 

 The identity of galvanism with electricity, for in- 

 stance, was at first, as we have intimated, rather 

 conjectured than proved. It was denied by Dr. 

 Fowler, in 1793; was supposed to be confirmed by 

 Dr. Wells two years later ; but was, still later, ques- 

 tioned by Davy. The nature of the operation of 

 the pile was variously conceived. Volta himself had 

 obtained a view of it which succeeding researches 

 5 Becquerel, Traits d'Eleclr. t. i. p. 108. 



