Crosse^ s Experiments with the Voltaic Battei^y. 125 



Art. X. — Descriptio7i of some Experiments made with the Voltaic 

 Battery ; by Andrew Crosse, Esq. of Broomfield, near Taun- 

 ton, for the purpose of producing Crystals ; in the process of 

 which Experiments certain Insects constantly appeared. Coin- 

 9nunicated in a letter dated Dec. 27, 1837, addressed to the Sec- 

 retary of the London Electrical Society, Read Jan. 20, 1838. 



From the Transactions of the Electrical Society of London. 



My dear Sir — I trust that the gentlemen who compose the 

 " Electrical Society" will not imagine that because I have so long 

 delayed answering their request, to furnish the Society through 

 you, as its organ, with a full account of my electrical experiments, 

 in which a certain insect made its unexpected appearance, that 

 such delay has been occasioned by any desire of withholding 

 what I have to state, from the Society in particular, or the pubhc 

 at large. I am delighted to find that at last, late, though not the 

 less called for, a body of scientific gentlemen have linked them- 

 selves together for the sake of exploring and making public those 

 mysteries, which hitherto, under a variety of names, and ascribed 

 to all causes but the true one, have eluded the grasp of men of 

 research, and served to perplex, perhaps, rather than to afibrd suf- 

 ficient data to theorize upon. It is true that much has been done 

 in the course of a few years, and that which has been done only 

 aflfords the strongest reason for believing that vastly more remains 

 to be done. It would be presumptuous in me to enumerate the 

 services of a Davy, a Faraday, and many other great men at home, 

 or a Vol ta and- an Ampere, with a host of others abroad. These 

 distinguished men have laid the foundations, on which their suc- 

 cessors ought to endeavor to erect a building worthy of the scale 

 in which it has been commenced. Electricity is no longer the 

 paltry confined science which it was once fancied to be, making 

 its appearance only from the friction of glass or wax, employed in 

 childish purposes, serving as a trick for the school-boy, or a nos- 

 trum for the quack. But it is, even now, though in its infancy, 

 proved to be most intimatelj^ connected with all operations in 

 chemistry, with magnetism, with light and caloric ; apparently a 

 property belonging to all matter, perhaps ranging through all space, 

 from sun to sun, from planet to planet, and not improbably the 

 secondary cause of every change in the animal, mineral, vegetable. 



