in constituting the peculiar Properties of Bodies, 'c. 19 
verted into vinegar. Thus the properties of the fluid change, as 
the chemical or electrical combination varies amongst the ele- 
mentary principles that compose it. 
If it be admitted that the character and properties of bodies 
be dérived from electrical influence upon the particles that com- 
pose them; the substances themselves are passive, or are merely 
the vehicles of limited quantities of electricity for which they 
have a determinate capacity. 
Supposing, according to the generally received opinion, that all 
bodies possess electricity, but in different quantities according 
to their capacity, combustion and other chemical effects might 
be explained upon a new theory. — 
The term combustion is here employed to express the evolution 
of light and heat, rather than the decomposition of a body. 
According to Lavoisier, combustion arises out of the combina- 
tion of an inflammable body with oxygen: hence oxygen has 
been considered as an essential to combustion. 
Inflammable bodies, generally, have great capacity for electricity, 
and oxygen of all other bodies the least. Whether we*suppose 
the inflammable body and oxygen to be taken away, or the ulti- 
mate particles of these bodies combined ; still the electricities re- 
main the same, and these very opposite states will rapidly com- 
bine to restore an electrical equilibrium. In either case, an 
emission of light and heat will be produced ; that is, either with 
or without the grosser bodies. So that we have all the effects 
of combustion in an electrical spark obtained from the conductor 
of an electrical machine, or from the positive and negative ends 
of the wires of the electro-chemical apparatus, as well as from . 
the combustion which is produced by the electrical combination 
of the ultimate particles of bodies in opposite states of electri- 
city. 
; Chigeén: which is considered as indispensable to combustion, 
may be withdrawn when electricity is supplied. 
In the ordinary experiment of burning charcoal between the 
positive and negative ends of the clectro-chemical apparatus, the 
degree of light and heat which is evolved is in proportion to the 
intensity of electrical power employed, and the effect which is 
produced is greatly superior to any other means of combustion : 
this seems to arise from the influence of uncombined electricity. 
When combustion takes place from the combination of the 
particles of two bodies, the effect is limited; or the emission of 
light and heat is dependent upon the electrical capacities of the 
bodies employed: thus, the different combustible dispositions 
which different bodies possess arise from their varying capacity 
for electricity, the intensity being the greatest in those bodies 
that are in the most opposite states. But the influence of un- 
combined 
