471 



with facts. Mr. Donovan terminated this part of the inquiry 

 with the following observations : 



" I have thus freely expressed my opinions relative to the 

 current, fearing that the old legitimate sense has been lost 

 sight of; that many have understood it to mean something 

 more than is warranted hy proved properties; and that the 

 universally admitted identity of the agent in electric and vol- 

 taic phenomena has emboldened philosophers to attribute qua- 

 lities to the former which belong only to the latter. On the 

 whole, 1 conceive that the current, in its modern acceptation, 

 instead of explaining voltaic phenomena, is calculated to 

 mislead ; and that it is of no avail in obviating the difficulties 

 which beset the alleged simultaneous operations of the two 

 states of electricity, when present in a state of commixture, 

 and which, instead of being at that moment in their condition 

 of greatest energy, should be destitute of all sensible proper- 

 ties." 



Sir Robert Kane read a communication from the Rev. Dr. 

 Callan, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the College at 

 Maynooth, on some improvements in the construction and use 

 of the Galvanic Battery. 



" Some time ago, whilst 1 was reflecting on the principle 

 of action of Grove's and Bunsen's batteries, it occurred to me 

 that lead might be substituted for the platina of Grove's and 

 the carbon of Bunsen's, I put into the porous cell of a Grove's 

 battery a plate of lead about one-sixteenth of an inch thick, 

 two inches broad, and six inches long. I found that the voltaic 

 current produced by the lead, excited by a mixture of cancenr 

 trated nitric and sulphuric acid, was very powerful. I after- 

 wards compared the power of the leaden battery with that of 

 a Grove's battery of the same size, by sending at the same 

 time, but in opposite directions, through the helix of a galva- 

 nometer, the current produced by the two batteries. Both 

 batteries were charged with the same acids. The voltaic cur- 



