idSig- On PrankBn's Theory of Electricity- \m 



distingnished. From the comparison of the two statementfe, it' 

 appears that if ^' a button of copper*" which either was fixed in 

 a' conductor charged by the machine with positive electricity, or 

 By commmiicating- with the earth, acquired a charge of an oppo- 

 site kind to that of the electrified conductor ^* be brought within* 

 six inches o^ the large globe ^'^ of the conductor negatively eleci^- 

 trified, the ramified electric fluid passes from the positive to th.^* 

 negative conductor. This last experiment in M. Van Marura'S* 

 hands has proved victorious over every person with whom it has 

 come in contact; and it is not, therefore, surprising that it shoul^ 

 liave convinced even the venerable, sober-minded, and intei-^ 

 ligent Franklin of the truth of /?is oion hypothesis. 



Happily, however, with whatever genius an hypothesis may;* 

 be first suggested, or however ably and inflexibly supported,^ 

 truth will ultimately become rebellious. Just as in this casef;^;' 

 where the similarity of the effects of positive and negative elec- 

 tricity is so obvious' in innumerable instances that it has beeit^ 

 impossible to repress the opinion that if the phenomena of posi*; 

 tive electricity arise from a pecuhar fluid, so do those of negatire^-^ 

 electricity. While a philosopher whose mind is accustomed tdi. 

 inductive reasoning will not be able to avoid some surprise thatf^ 

 such a man as Franklin, on seeing M. Van Marum's experiment, 

 should say, " this proves the theory of a simple electric fluid, 

 and it is now high time to reject the theory of two sorts of 

 fluids.'^ To such a philosopher, it must appear singular that it 

 should not have suggested itself to Franklin, that it might have 

 been, that the negative electricity had arisen from a peculiar' 

 fluid, which was held in its conductor by a stronger attractions 

 than that by which the positive electricity was held in its con- " 

 dtictor; or it might have been that the air (which probably^' 

 occasions the zigzag ramified appearance of the positive spark), 

 opposed less resistance to the positive fluid than to the negative; 

 or it might have been that the form of the button aflorded greater* 

 facility to the transmission of an electric fluid than that of a'" 

 large globe ; and either of these circumstances would account' 

 for the passage of the electric fluid from the positive to the nega- ' 

 tive conductor, consistently with the notion of a negative electric"* 

 fluid. But if every one of these circumstances were shown not^ 

 to' exist, the experiment could not possibly />rot-e that there was^i 

 no negative or resinous electric fluid. Even then the fact that^ 

 the positive electric flui:l had been attracted to the negative* 

 c'onductor, would no more havd^rovec? the non-existence ofa'^ 

 negative or resinous electric fluid, than the fact that concen- 

 trated sulphuric acid attracting water to itself proves the nt3n- 

 e^cistence of sulphuric acid. ,; - ^• 



But M. Van Marum's experimetlt' t^Hl* be Better explairifet^f 

 a<id his obs^i*ration« answered, by another experiment, whictt^ 



