88 . HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



confirmed, when he asserted 6 , in 1800,. that it re- 

 sembled an electric battery feebly charged and con- 

 stantly renewing its charge. In pursuance of this 

 view, the common electrical action was, at a later 

 period (for instance by Ampere, in 1820), called 

 electrical tension, while the voltaic action was called 

 the electrical current, or electromotive action. The 

 different effects produced, by increasing the size 

 and the number of the plates in the voltaic trough, 

 were also very remarkable. The power of producing 

 heat was found to depend on the size of the plates ; 

 the power of producing chemical changes, on the 

 other hand, was augmented by the number of plates 

 of which the battery consisted. The former effect 

 was referred to the increased quantity, the latter to 

 the intensity, of the electric fluid. We mention 

 these distinctions at present, rather for the purpose 

 of explaining the language in which the results of 

 the succeeding investigations are narrated, than 

 .with the intention of representing the hypotheses 

 and measures which they imply, as clearly esta- 

 blished, at the period of which we speak. For 

 that purpose new discoveries were requisite, which 

 we have soon to relate. 



6 Phil. Trans, p. 403. 



