27 8 On the Knowledge of the Ancients 



eye muft; admit very little light, though it may / 

 allow great diftinftnefs of vifion. — ' 



In mealuring different parts of the eye, I was 

 affilled by Mr, Afpdin, an ingenious watch- 

 maker, in this town. 



Observations on the Knowledge of the 

 Ancients refpe^ing Electricity ; by 

 William Falconer, M. D. F. R. S. 

 Communicated by Dr. Percival. 



READ MAY 2, I788. 



IT is, I believe, generally allowed, that Elec- 

 tricity, confidered as a principle, or quality, 

 pervading all nature, was unknown to the philo- 

 fophers of antiquity. It is, however, admitted, 

 that fome of its effects were obferved by them, 

 but their obfervations led them to believe, that 

 it was a peculiar property of certain bodies only, 

 and not that it was, as it now appears to be, one 

 of the moft general and a6live agents in the 

 natural fyftem. Theophraftus is, as far as I 

 know, the firft writer that has remarked the 

 attradlive power of bodies to oiie another, 

 diftincl from the attractions of gravity and mag- 



netifm. 



