GALVANISM. 
. both on the continent — in this country. None 
thin hat Galvani had dif. 
n of electrical theory to animal 
sae 
bout this time, however, fignior Volta took up the 
fubject, ai philofophy has to rejoice that his mode of theo- 
sens although: not ftri@tly true, has coatributed a remeed 
t rapid advancement. He fet out wit idea, con- 
oe to Galvani, that the eletricity in queftion did not 
belong to the animal, but to the different ee aeereen 
. poe pedis was unlikely to produce any greater ef. 
what tw ces of metal could effe&, becaufe he 
believed the abavcty: to be in the animal. Volta was led 
o the difcovery of the battery by combining a number of 
anes of ‘metal together, becaufe he was ae that the 
eleGtricity was in the metals and = ids employed 
pé eat the er ae pir of ‘Geiveni, ‘and found 
when two pieces of metal of “different kinds were placed 
of an ee at the fame time that the 
of 
pa important difcovery of accumulatin g 
this pee of ele&tricity was made by Volta in 7 and 
hence has bee n denominated the Voltaic ia appa- 
certain ne a 
ececy 
nN, 'o 
. 
. 
7 
tru 
the time ‘of his di aad was , 
the effects a 
of pure water. A pile confifting of forty pairs of plates 
he ial to poffefs the power o tho 
giving a very ime 
fimilar . that of a {mall ele€tric j jar; and that this a took 
e place as often as a communication was mad eac 
cs de pile, aa as long as the pieces of cloth ern 
oift. 
v An account of this difcovery was communicated to the 
pe Society, and publifhed in the Philofophical Tranf- 
action 
We e not hear of this celebrated philofopher ames 
any further difcovery after the invention of the and. 
afcertaining the nature and extent of its effects Le ani« 
e firtt se ga oar upon the piles in this coantey 
appear to have been made by Meffrs. Nicholfon and Car- 
hi After obferving ] effects then already afcribed to 
the piles on bringing the wires from each end of the column 
in contact with a drop of water, they obferved a difengage- 
ment - bubbles of fome elaftic fluid. 
On clofer examination they found the gas to be hydrogen, 
hey ce took a glafs tube, about an inch in diameter, 
into each end of which a cork was infer a, has tube being 
l Through each s introduce 
ifhe 
hes wire conne@ed with the 
— end of the pile was conftant and uniform, except when 
metallic circuit was formed between the ends of the pile, 
eae which no gas whattver appeared. It was obferved 
that when this metallic conductor was removed, the appear- 
nce the gas ey r 
terval of about two feconds between removing the wire, and 
After the cds had continued 
two-thirds of | a cubic inch. ‘This gas was mixed with 
equal bulk of common air, and exploded on the application 
cf a a eae taper 
where the oxygen was difpofed o 
They then made the experiment with a longer tube, but 
no appearance of gas was obferved at the diftance of thirty- 
fix inches. en they introduced an infufion of litmus in- 
ftead of pure water, they’ obferved that the fluid in the Vie 
ini 
r wire was not 
ufual, was evolved. 
was in 1 the lus ftate "of soaae, and the oppofite wa ia in 
_ the minus 
- 
ate. 
hey next varied the experiment by inferting a = 
