gjfr ANALYSIS Of THE GALVAKIC PIL& 



the air (as fire in steam, when it pervades a glass lamina t<> 

 establish its own equilibrium beyond it* deposits the tenter 

 on the side which receives the steam, where it remains, till it 

 is carried away* either by lire coining from without* or by 

 that spread in. the air)*. 



I come to the peculiar function of the electric matter in 

 the above indicated phenomena: it is the sole cause of elec- 

 tric motions; resulting from * greater or less proportional 

 quantity of it, than is possessed by the ambient air; to 

 which subject I shall return : the rector has no share in these 

 motions, but as the vehicle of the electric matter acting in 

 their phenomena* (As, with respect to steam* it is only 

 water that produces the hygroscopic phenomena, without 

 any interference of fire, except as the vehicle of ivater.) 



By this system of a first composition of the electric fluid, 



the phenomena, which I have introduced in the beginning, 



are clearly explained in all their modifications, as I have 



The cTectric abundantly proved by direct experiments in my works. But 



turd in it* r> a- - dS \ on a- aH the electric fluid remains in what I have called 



tisrsu state pro- . J . 



duc^snoche- its natural state, moving along conductors and fixed on 

 mical effects, nonconductors, it produces no chemical effect hitherto known : 

 "What then does happen, when it produces these pheno- 

 mena ? 

 Frrw these ef- If w ? attend to this change, we shall observe a circum- 

 f.otsarepro- stance sine qua non, which is to contain some cause; it is, 

 that the conductor, along which the electric fluid moves, 

 must be interrupted. Now, when in this case the electric 

 fluid darts through the air, three new phenomena are ob- 

 served, lucidity, heal, and a particular odour. This cannot 

 but indicate the decomposition of some particles of the fluid, 

 occasioned by an excels of density, from which light, fire, 

 and an odorate substance are disengaged: as when steam (to 

 which from the beginning I have compared by analogy this 

 system on the nature of the electric fluid) becomes too 

 dense for the actual temperature, some of its particles, being 

 decomposed, emit water ami fire. 



These new substances, light, fire, and an odorate sub- 

 stance, thus manifested in the composition of the electric 

 fluid, are neither the electric matter, nor the vector, them- 

 selves, but must be contained in them, combined with some 



other 



