ihe Light of Bodies in a State of Combufiion, 207 



fpnrks, when viewed at a didance, bear a rcddifh hue. Such 

 arc tlie explofioiis which have pailed through water, I'piiits of 

 wine, or T.ny bad condudor, when confined in a tube whofe 

 diameter is not more than an inch. The reafon of tlicfe 

 appearances Teems to be, that the weaker the fpark or explofioii 

 is, the lefs is the iiglit which efcapes ; and the more vifible 

 the effe6t of any medium which has a powder to abforb fomc of 

 that light. 



The preceding obfervations concerning ele(5lrical h!ght were 

 the refult of my attempts to arrange, under general heads, 

 the principal fingularities attending it. They may, perhaps, 

 affifl others in determining how far they may have led my mind 

 aftray in giving birth to a theory wiiich I would now briefly 

 defcribe in a few queries. 



I. If we confider all bodies as compounds, whofe confrituent 

 parts are kept together by attracting one another with different 

 forces, can we avoid concluding, that the operations of that 

 attradive force are regulated, not only by the quality, but the 

 quantity likewife of thofe component parts? If an union of a 

 certain number of one kind ot particles, with a certain num- 

 ber of a fecond and third kind of particles, forms a particular 

 body, mufi: not the bond which keeps that body together be 

 weakened or ftrengthened by Incrcafmg or diminiiliing any one 

 of the different kinds of particles which enter into its confti- 

 tution ? 



II. When, to the natural fhare of the eledric fluid al- 

 ready exifting in the body, a frefli quantity of the fame 

 fluid is added, muft not fome of the component parts of that 

 body efcape ; or muf!: not that attractive force which kept all 

 toaether be fo far weakened as to let loofe fome conllituent 



part5p. 



