a 
192 Faraday as a Discoverer. 
electro-chemical decomposition ranks, in point of importance, — 
with that of definite combining proportions in chemistry. 
Origin of Power in the Voltaic Pile, 
In one of the public areas of the town of Como standsa 
statute, with no inscription on its pedestal save that of a | 
name, “Volta.” The bearer of that name occupies a place 
is that the discussion of a point of en : 
; and scarcely less fierce for many years was tht 
— : 
‘ contest as to the origin and maintenance of the power of the 
voltaic pile. Volta himself supposed it to reside in the con 
tact of different metals. Here was exerted his “electro-mote — 
force,” which tore the combined electricities asunder and drove 
them as currents in opposite directions, To render the “a 
lation of the current possible, it was necessary to connect Mf 
metals by a moist conductor ; for when any two metals et | 
. * . na of 
Volta himself knew nothing of the chemnittl ae 
Gene 
chief development and illustration in Germany. s 
the selentifie. creed of the great chemists and natural philos 
ophers of that country, and to the present hour there ! tion 
some of them unable to liberate themselves from the 1 
of their first-love. 
