Biographical Notice of Alexander folta. 76 



when directed from east to west, towards the equator. Now 

 every thing conspires to prove the correctness of tliis suppo- 

 sition. Davy has discovered by means of the piles, that all 

 bodies which we call earthy, are metaUic oxides ; it is, then 

 probable that below the oxidized crust of our globe, there 

 are metals in a pure state, which are continually acted upon 

 by the surrounding agents, such as water, and we have thus 

 an active source of electric currents, on which the earth's ro- 

 tation tends to impress a determined direction. 



What an admirable connexion does the explanation of 

 M. Ampere, which we have just presented, exhibit. It is 

 the pile which teaches us that an electric current is under 

 the influence of the earth ; it is the pile which teaches us 

 that all the substances of which the earth is composed, are 

 metalhc oxides ; these two facts which at first view, have 

 no other relation to each other, than that of arising from the 

 same source, are found, by an ingenious theory, to have an 

 intimate application to each other. 



If we were to enumerate all the services which the pile 

 has rendered to science, we should be obliged to surpass the 

 bounds within which this article must necessarily be limited. 

 We regret that we cannot enlarge upon the important la- 

 bours of Mr. Becquerel, upon the recent researches of Mr. 

 Savary relative to the very remarkable phenomena which he 

 has discovered in the magnetism of steel by electric dischar- 

 ges, and that we cannot dwell upon other numerous experi- 

 ments made by philosophers of various countries. The fore- 

 going account is sufficient, we think, to shew what an inex- 

 haustible mine of rich discoveries Volta has put into the 

 hands of experimenters, in giving them the pile, and conse- 

 quently, what legitimate claims he has upon their gratitude 

 and their regrets. 



It was our wish in terminating this article, to give some 

 details relative to the life of Volta ; but the journal from 

 which we derived the article which has served as a text to 

 the developments we have just given, gives us very little in- 

 formation on that subject. 



We only observe that Volta was born at Como, in 1745, 

 that in 1771 he was appointed professor of philosophy at 

 Pavia, and that in that city, during twenty five years, he 

 taught the true principles of electricity, and ornamented 

 this science by his most valuable discoveries. In 1782 he 

 made several journies in Europe with his illustrious colleague 



