Fourcroy was also one of the savants appointed in 1798 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris to examine and report upon the experiments of Galvani. The committee was composed of Guyton de Morveau, Coulomb, Vauquelin, Sabathier, Pelletan, Charles, Fourcroy and Hallé, the last named being charged with the verification of all the then recent discoveries, which were repeated with the assistance of Humboldt, who went to Paris especially for the purpose. The official report fully endorsed the praiseworthy line of researches prosecuted by both Galvani and Humboldt, and the entire series of experiments was at once repeated by many leading physicists throughout Germany.
On June 19, 1803, one of Antoine Fourcroy’s most interesting memoirs, treating of meteoric stones, was read by C. Fourcroy before the French Institute.
References.—Phil. Mag., Vol. XVI. p. 299; Noad’s “Lectures,” pp. 183, 184; Ure, “Dict. of Chem.”; also the interesting biography embracing a list of his very numerous works and treatises, at pp. 846–849, Vol. IX of 1855 “Encyclopædia Britannica.” See likewise, “Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers,” Vol. II. pp. 677–682; Thomas Thomson, “History of Royal Society,” p. 454; Wilkinson’s “Elements of Galvanism ...” 1804, Vol. II. pp. 113, 145, 151, 152, 208, 359; Fahie’s “History of Electric Telegraphy,” p. 194; Izarn, “Manuel du Galv.,” 1804, s. 4, p. 167; “Journal des Savants” for Jan. 1860; P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Paris, 1802, Vol. II. pp. 159–160, 241, 264. For Louis N. Vauquelin, consult “Cat. Sc. Papers of Roy. Soc.,” Vol. VI. pp. 114–128, 761; also “Mém. des Soc. Savantes et Litt.,” Vol. I. p. 204.
A.D. 1801.—Lehot (C. J.), French physicist, sends a curious and lengthy memoir, regarding the circulation of a very subtile fluid in the galvanic chain, to the Institut National, before which body it is read on the 26 Frimaire, An. IX.
To the analyzation of the above-named memoir, Wilkinson devotes more than half the tenth chapter of his “Elements of Galvanism,” calling attention to a very singular result from numerous experiments which is worthy of special mention. It is the possibility of actually distinguishing one metal from another without seeing or feeling either of them, and he says that by his arrangement of the chain, M. Lehot was able to recognize a portion of zinc from a piece of silver, at the extremity of metallic threads several yards in length.
Lehot’s contributions to the science of animal electricity are too numerous to be given here. Noad summarizes them in the translation from pp. 17, 18 of C. Matteucci’s “Traité des phénomènes ...” Paris, 1844.
He ascertained that in a recently killed animal contractions are excited by the electric current in whatever direction it may be applied, but, when the vitality of the animal has become diminished, if the current is sent in the direction of the ramifications of the nerves, contractions are produced only at the commencement of the current; the reverse takes place when the current is directed contrary to the ramifications of the nerves; i. e. in this case the contractions only take place when the current ceases. After studying the sensation excited by the current on the organs of taste, Lehot concluded that the current which traverses a nerve in the direction of its ramifications excites a sensation when it ceases to pass, though this influence is only exerted at the commencement of its passage when the nerve is traversed in a direction contrary to its ramifications. The later experiments of Carlo Francesco Bellingeri and Stefano Giovanni Marianini entirely confirm those of Lehot.
References.—Annales de Chimie, Vol. XXXVIII. p. 42; Journal de Physique, An. IX, Pluviose, LII. 135; Gilbert, Annalen, IX. 188; P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Vol. II. pp. 123, 124, 129, 132, 141,142; “Encyclopedia Metropolitana,” Vol. IV (“Electro-Magnetism,” p. 8).
A.D. 1801.—Wollaston (William Hyde), celebrated English chemist and natural philosopher, an associate of Sir Humphry Davy, who had taken the degree of M.D., and joined the Royal Society in 1793, but soon abandoned the practice of medicine to devote himself exclusively to scientific researches, is the first to demonstrate the identity of galvanism and frictional electricity, through a paper read before the above-named society in June 1801.
The latter communication shows that he succeeded in decomposing water as rapidly by means of mere sparks from frictional electricity as through the agency of the voltaic pile, and in a more tranquil and progressive manner than can be assured through shocks from large and powerful apparatus. He concluded that the decomposition must depend upon duly proportioning the strength of the charge to the quantity of water, and that the quantity exposed to its action at the surface of communication depends on the extent of that surface. He observes: