Before he died, he asked, as had his favorite poet Dante, whose Divina Commedia had been one of the pleasures of life and above all one of the consolations of his times of adversity, to be buried in the humble habit of a member of the Third Order of St. Francis. He is said to have valued his fellowship with the sons of the "poor little man of Assisi" more than the many honorary fellowships of various kinds which had been conferred upon him by scientific societies all over Europe. With him passed away one of the great pioneers of modern science and one of the most lovable men in all the history of science. His death took place just before the close of the eighteen century, Dec. 4, 1798, but his work was destined to be one of the harbingers of a great period of electrical development. FOOTNOTES: [11] Fordham University Press, 1906. [12] Ranam dissecui, atque praeparavi ut in fig. 2 Tab. V. eamque in tabula, omnia mihi alia proponens, in qua erat mechina electrica fig. 1, collocavi ab ejus conductore penitus sejunctam, atque haud brevi intervallo dissitam; dum scalpelli cuspidem unus ex iis, qui mihi operam dabant, cruralibus hujus ranae internis nervis DD casu vel leviter admoveret, continuo omnes artuum musculi ita contrahi visi sunt, ut in vehementiores incidisse tonicas convulsiones viderentur. Eorum vero alter, qui nobis electricitatem tentantibus praesto erat, animadvertere sibi visus est, rem contingere dum ex conductere machinae scintilla extorqueretur fig. 1 B. Rei novitatem ille admiratus de eadem statim me alia omnino molientem ac mecum ipso cogitantem admonuit. His ego incredibili cum studio, et cupiditate incensus idem experiundi, et quod occultum in re esset in lucem pro ferendi admovi propterea et ipse scalpelli cuspidem uni vel alteri crurali nervo, quo tempore unus aliquis ex iis, qui aderant, scintillam eliceret. Phoenomenon eadem omnino ratione contigit; vehementes nimirum contractiones in singulos artum musculos, perinde ac si tetano praeparatum animal esset correptum, eodem ipso temporis momento inducebantur, quo scintillae extorquerentur. [13] For the sake of those who might care to see how the great Dutch naturalist expressed these curious scientific notions in Latin, the original text seems worth while giving.