[ viii ] 
fpeffi of the refults of my different Efl'ays, 
it fruck me, that If they had been properly 
arranged and commented upon, they would 
have, been of much greater utility. ’This re- 
flection induced me to prepare the prefent 
Work, of which the following is the plan. 
I flrfl give an outline of the hiflory of 
Electricity down to the difcovery alluded to , 
on which I dwell a little both to explain the 
circumflances which gave rife to it, and the 
nature of the difcovery itfelf. 
complaifance to infert allufive to me y in one of his letters 
upon Animal Ele&ricity . Thefe letters of M. Volta contain 
fome experiments between mufcle and mufcle of prepared 
frogs, and in live frogs y which I publijhed as my own . I 
cannot do lefs in juflice to myfelf than obferve y that I made 
thefe experiments at Turin y in the month of May 17925 
in the prefence of many fpeffators y among whom IJhall only 
mention the Count de St. Martin y the Abbe Eandi y and 
Doctors Giulio and Boniva y Profeffors of the Univerfity. 
By this I do not mean to fay that M. Volta has taken his 
experiments from me y but to prove that I did not borrow 
them from him . This gentleman publijhed them as belonging 
to him y without knowing that I was the author of them y 
jufl in the fame way as he publijhed as his own the Dif¬ 
covery of the Inflammable Air of Stagnant TSfater^ which 
had been before made by Franklin • 
Then 
‘ 09 
