Page:A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Whittacker E.T. (1910).pdf/91

 impulse, whether produced by attraction or any other force, is different or unlike, both in regard to the different metals and to the different moist conductors; so that the direction, or at least the power, with which the electric fluid is impelled or excited, is different when the conductor A is applied to the conductor B, or to another C. In a perfect circle of conductors, where either one of the second class is placed between two different from each other of the first class, or, contrariwise, one of the first class is placed between two of the second class different from each other, an electric stream is occasioned by the predominating force either to the right or to the left-a circulation of this fluid, which ceases only when the circle is broken, and which is renewed when the circle is again rendered complete."

Another philosopher who, like Volta, denied the existence of a fluid peculiar to animals, but who took a somewhat different view of the origin of the phenomenon, was Giovanni Fabroni, of Florence (b. 1752, d. 1822), who, having placed two plates of different metals in water, observed that one of them was partially oxidized when they were put in contact; from which he rightly concluded that some chemical action is inseparably connected with galvanic effects.

The feeble intensity of the phenomena of galvanism, which compared poorly with the striking displays obtained in electrostatics, was responsible for some falling off of interest in them towards the end of the eighteenth century; and the last years of their illustrious discoverer were clouded by misfortune. Being attached to the old order which was overthrown by the armies of the French Revolution, he refused in 1798 to take the oath of allegiance to the newly constituted Cisalpine Republic, and was deposed from his professorial chair. A profound melancholy, which had been induced by domestic bereavement, was aggravated by poverty and disgrace; and, unable to survive the loss of all he held dear, he died broken-hearted before the end of the year.