426 On Chemical Philosophy, 



its movements, had power to pass through substances with more 

 or less facihty, and was more or less active or energetic in its 

 actions. 



If tlien we considered attractive agencies, or these unconfi- 

 nable substances as they are called in some systems, or these di- 

 versified appearances produced in this way during the actions of 

 this power, as still higlily attenuated in their nature, — how much 

 more so must tha pure and uncombined form of this power it- 

 self be ! — In fact, I conceive we can form no adequate conce]>tion 

 of the extreme subtilty of this power in its separate and unmixed 

 state; in its pure state it permeates every substance. That it 

 possesses thisextretne tenuity, subtilty* or rarity, will be readily 

 granted, without pressing any further arguments in if? defence, 

 or at all bringing {"orvvard the host cf facts that prove it, or 

 without in this place entering into a comparative estimate of 

 each — of galvanism, electricity, caloric, or light, and of those di- 

 stinctive charj^cters which have hitherto placed them at such a 

 remote distance from each other, and formed them into separate 

 and distinct branches of science. If then its extreme tenuity be 

 granted, we have one property determined ; and another will be 

 still more readily allowed without any arguments to support it, 

 — that it possesses varied degrees of attraction for different sub- 

 stances. That these degrees should differ in different substances, 

 will be afterwards stated and considered ; and we shall also show 

 that it is the grand solvent. In short, I shall endeavour to prove 

 how this highly attenuated fluid, by virtue of some of its more 

 evident qualities, must produce certain effects: That its ex- 

 treme tenuity, its solvent powers, and varied attractive relation 

 to substances, must, in proportion to its quantity and the 

 time taken to act, and to the concentrated nature of these ac- 

 tions, and the solubility of the substances on which it acts, tend 

 more or less to change their state of existence, or carry them in 

 one way and draw them in another : or, in other words, from its 

 solvent or attractive powers, it has the disposition to eriter into 

 and uuherc to substances, and from its tenuity, and its permea- 

 ting and irresistible force, to restore every derangement in its due 

 distribution ; and hence its movements to the point by which 

 and to which its solvent or attractive powers are demanded and 

 directed: and from this point where it is accumulated the radia- 

 tion of the excess takes place; two opposite movements are pro- 



* It may be conceived that there are too many epithets usqd : but the 

 fact is, that I now consider it the safer side to err upon ; since in laying 

 these ideas before a Society, now some time aco, in a more condensed and 

 abstract form, those who spoke upon the subject app.\ired to me not to 

 hare understood one sentence throughout ; as for instance, by the word 

 " rarity" Ihcy understood that I meant the scarcity of attraction. 



duced j 



