If a metallic plate, in connexion with the positive pole, be applied to the 

 i tongue, and another connected with the negative pole to any other part, a strong 

 ' acidulous savor is perceived. If the plate applied to the tongue be connected 

 } with the negative pole, a strong alkaline savor is felt. 



It is not the organs of taste only which are sensible to the influence of this 

 j instrument. The sense of sight is susceptible of its operation in a manner even 

 | more wonderful. Let a metallic surface connected with one of the poles be 

 \ applied to the forehead, the cheek, the nose, the chin, or the throat; and, at 

 j the same time, let the patient take in his hand the wire connected with the I 

 ' other pole. Immediately a light will be perceived, even though the eyes be 

 closed, the splendor and appearance of which will vary with the part of the 

 face in contact with the metallic plate. By similar means, the perception of 

 sound will be perceived in the ears. 



The action of the pile on the animal body after the vital principle is de- 

 stroyed is so well known, that it is scarcely necessary to mention it here. 

 The trunk of a decapitated body will rise from its recumbent posture ; the arms 

 will move and strike objects near them ; the legs will elevate themselves with 

 a force sufficient to raise considerable weights ; the breast will heave as if 

 respiration were restored ; and. in fine, all the vital actions will be manifested 

 with terrific and revolting precision. 



In the hands of the entomologist, the pile affords results not less interesting. 

 The glow-worm, submitted to the electric current, shines with increased splen- 

 dor ; the grasshopper chirps, as if under the action of a stimulant.* 



The physiological action of the pile was strongly suggestive of a mysterious 

 connexion between the electric fluid and the proximate principle of vitality. 

 When some of these effects were exhibited to Napoleon, the emperor turned 

 to Corvisart, his physician, and said, " Docteur, voila 1'image de la vie : la 

 colonne vertebrale est la pile ; le foie, le pole negatif ; la vessie, le pole posi- 

 tif." f 



The invention of the pile had been scarcely more than hinted at, when that 

 course of electro-chemical investigations began which soon led to the magnifi- 

 cent discoveries of Davy, and the series of experimental researches which 

 have been continued to the present time with results so remarkable by those 

 who succeeded him. The first four pages only of the letter of Volta to Sir 

 Joseph Banks were despatched on the 20th of March, 1800 ; and as these 

 were not produced in public till the receipt of the remainder, the letter was 

 not read at the Royal Society, or published, until the 26th of June following. 

 The first portion of the letter, in which was described generally the formation 

 of the pile, was shown in the latter end of April by Sir Joseph Banks to some 

 scientific men, and among others to Sir Anthony (then Mr.) Carlisle, who was 

 \ engaged at the time in certain physiological inquiries. Mr. W. Nicholson, the 

 < conductor of the scientific journal known as Nicholson's Journal, and Carlisle, 

 i constructed a pile of seventeen silver half-crown pieces alternated with equal 

 j disks of copper and cloth soaked in a weak solution of common salt, with which 

 I on the 30th of April they commenced their experiments. It happened that a 



* Eloge, p. 33. 



) t This anecdote was told by Chaptel, who was present on the occasion, to Bequerel ; and 1 

 ( ter relates it in the lirst volume of hia work on electricity, published in 1834. The idea 

 / tricity is the immediate principle of vitality has occurred to other minds. Sir John Herschel, in Ins ( 

 ( Preliminary Discourse published iu the Cabinet Cyclopedia in 1830, without any knowled 

 ( above anecdote, says (p. 343), If the brain be an electric pile constantly in action, it may b< 

 ( ceived to discharge itself at regular intervals, when the tension of the electricity developed n 

 ( a certain point, along the nerves which communicate with the heart, and thus to excite the pupation ( 

 ( of that organ. This idea is forcibly suggested by the view of that elegant apparatus, the dry pi 

 \ DC Lur, in which the successive accumulations of electricity are earned ott by a suspended 

 which is kept by the discharge in a state of regular pulsation for any length of time. A su 

 ; idea occurred to Dr. Artiott, and is mentioned in hia Physics. 



