94 Atmosphere. 



of storms and tempests. The yesty waves, 

 which confound the heaven and the sea, 

 are doing the very thing which is done 

 in the bottle, and are a perpetual scarce 

 of freshness to our atmosphere. 



The atmosphere, as we have seen, 

 contains a great deal of water, together 

 with a vast heterogeneous collection of 

 particles raised from all bodies of matter 

 on the surface of the earth, by effluvia, ex- 

 halations, &c. so that it may be consider- 

 ed as a chaos f the particles of all sorts 

 of matter confusedly mingled together. 

 And hence the atmosphere has been con- 

 sidered as a large chemical vessel, in 

 which the matter of all kinds of subluna- 

 ry bodies is copiously floating ; and thus 

 exposed to the continual action of that 

 immense surface, the sun ; from whence 

 proceed innumerable operations, subli- 

 mations, separations, compositions, di- 

 gestions,fermentations, putrefactions, &c 



There is, however,one substance, nam- 

 ly, the electrical fluid, which is very dis- 

 tinguishable in the mass of the atmos- 

 phere. To measure the absolute quanti- 

 ty of this fluid, either in the atmosphere, 

 or any other substance, is perhaps impos- 



