expression on the murderer's face, surpassing far the
wildest representations of a Fuseli or a Kean. At this period several of
the spectators were obliged to leave the room from terror or sickness,
and one gentleman fainted." The bodies of horses, oxen, and sheep were
galvanized, with results the most surprising. Five men were unable to
hold the leg of a horse subjected to the action of a powerful battery.

So far as we know, nothing of much importance has yet been inferred from
such experiments as these. Davy and Faraday, however, and their pupils,
did not confine their attention to these barren wonders. Sir Humphry
Davy took the "pile" as invented by Volta, in 1800, and founded by its
assistance what may be styled a new science, and developed it to the
point where it became available for the arts and utilities of man. The
simple and easy process by which silver and gold are decomposed, and
then deposited upon metallic surfaces, is only one of many ways in which
the galvanic battery ministers to our convenience and pleasure. If the
reader will step into a manufactory of plated ware, he will see, in the
plating-room, a trough containing a liquid resembling tea as it comes
from the teapot. Avoiding scientific terms, we may say that this liquid
is a solution of silver, and contains about four ounces of silver to a
gallon of water. There are also thin plates of silver hanging along the
sides of the trough into the liquid. The galvanic battery which is to
set this apparatus in motion is in a closet near by. The vessels to be
plated, after being thoroughly cleaned and exactly weighed, are
suspended in the liquid by a wire running along the top of the trough.
When all is ready, the current of electricity generated by the small
battery in the closet is made to pass through the trough, and along all
the metallic surfaces therein contained. When this has been done, the
spectator may look with all his eyes, but he cannot perceive that
anything is going on. There is no bubbling, nor fizzing, nor any other
noise or motion. The long row of vessels hang silently at their wire,
immersed in their tea, and nobody appears to pay any attention to them.
And so they continue to hang for hours,--for five or six or seven hours,
if the design is to produce work which will answer some other purpose
than selling. All this time a most wonderful and mysterious process is
going on. That gentle current of electricity, noiseless and invisible as
it i