344 



who could compare his apparatus with those 

 constructed in Europe. I had brought with me 

 electrometers, with straws, with pith balls, and 

 with gold leaves ; and also a small Leyden vial, 

 which could be charged by friction according to 

 the method of Ingenhousz, and which served 

 for my physiological experiments. Mr. Pozo 

 could not contain his joy, on seeing for the first 

 time instruments which he had not made, and 

 which appeared to be copied from his own. We 

 also showed him the effect of the contact of he- 

 terogeneous metals on the nerves of frogs. The 

 names of Galvani and Volta had not yet re- 

 sounded In those vast solitudes. 



After this electrical apparatus, the work of 

 the industrious sagacity of an inhabitant of the 

 Llanos, nothing at Calabozo excited in us so 

 great an interest as the gymnoti, which are ani- 

 mated electrical apparatuses. Occupied daily 

 for a great number of years by the phenomena 

 of galvanic electricity ; given up to that enthu- 

 siasm, which excites us to research, but prevents 

 us from seeing accurately what we have dis- 

 covered ; having constructed, unconsciously, 

 real piles, by placing metallic disks one upon 

 another, and making them alternate with pieces 

 of muscular flesh, or with other humid substan- 

 ces * ; I was impatient, from the time of my 



* See my Experiments on the irritable Fibre, vol. i, p. 74, 

 pi. iii, iv, v, of the German edition. 



