[ 4 ] 
diflented from him in opinion, inflituted a 
great variety of experiments and enquiries. 
By means of thefe, this branch of phyfics 
became enriched with new fadts, from 
which new principles and dodtrines might 
be deduced.—Volta effedted this—He 
eftablifhed the laws of the atmofpheric 
eledtricity, the exigence of which was 
already known to Franklin and others, 
and took his idea of the electrophorus 
from what Beccaria had written upon vin¬ 
dicative eledtricity .—Elettricila vindice. 
This was a gigantic ftep towards im¬ 
provement in the fcience of eledtricity, 
which was foon followed by others, which 
have enabled us, by nice and accurate 
meafures, to calculate the fmalleffc powers 
of this principle, and to difcover thofe 
procefles, which nature appears to have 
concealed with folicitude from the inqui- 
fitive refearches of human curiofity. 
The eledtrical fluid being confidered as 
the 
