to account for the Phcenomena of Electricity. 407 



not exert any sensible action." If sparks be still thrown in from 

 the conductor, the phial will soon be charged, and at length will 

 receive no more. According to the hypothesis the sparks in- 

 dicate that the opposite powers are destroying each other, and 

 their cessation shows the complete abstraction of the negative 

 power from the fluid natural to the phial. The pliial ought now 

 to contain no more than tlie positive part of the natural quan- 

 tity, the negative having been destroyed : so that, when fully 

 charged, it contains but lialf the quantity that it does when not 

 charged. This, which seems to be a fairly deduced consequence 

 from some of the principles of the hypothesis, is not only im- 

 probable as to fact, but even irreconcileable to Mr. Eeles's opi- 

 nion, for he conceives that the charged phial contains twice the 

 quantity of positive electricity when charged. 



Applying the same arguments to the outside of the phial, the 

 question occurs, How can positive electricity received on the iii- 

 side from the conductor be able to effect a continual repulsion 

 of positive from the outside of the phial, when, after being sa- 

 turated by the negative power derived from the inside, it must 

 have lost the power of repulsion ? The question becomes stil 

 less answerable, when it is considered that the positive power on 

 the outer surface was firmly maintained in its place liy the attrac- 

 tion of the negative electricity with which it naturally coexisted. 



But even if the positive power could be repelled from the 

 outside, it must be condensed and its properties destroyed by 

 the negative electricity attracted by the opposite power on the 

 inside. Therefore but half the natural quantity can remain on 

 the outside when the phial is fully charged, and nothing addi- 

 tional could be acquired. 



The principal objection and the last now remains to be stated. 

 Mr. Eeles supposes that positive and negative electrics exist 

 cornbined, constituting the natural state of all bodies. He has 

 endowed both fluids with the powers of attraction and repulsion: 

 and he has given data from whence may be inferred an equality 

 of force in the powers of attraction and repulsion. Yet in his 

 explanation of the Leyden phial, he supposes that when a quan- 

 tity of one power is thrown on one surface, it repels an equal 

 quantity of the same power from the opposite surface, a contrary 

 power supplying its place. If the two electrics have so great an 

 attraction, why did the power thrown in on one side overcome 

 the attraction of the similar to the contrary power naturally co- 

 existing on the other side ? Why should not the natural com- 

 bination remain unaltered, when it was maintained by a force 

 equal to that which endeavoured to effect a separation of its 

 component electricities ? No more should an additional quan- 

 tity of the positive fluid separate the positive from the negative 

 C c 4 fluid 



