388 Additional Notes. 



Note (F), p. 30. — Mr. ^pinus, of the imperial academy of 

 St. Petersburg, has attempted to class the phenomena of JS/t^cm- 

 citj/ and Magnetism in a mathematical method. In the course of 

 his work he gives some views of the subject which *are new, and 

 highly ingenious, and, as some good judges suppose, calculated to 

 surmount many difficulties, and to answer many questions which 

 occur in considering the Franklinian theory. — ^The leading princi- 

 ples of his plan are comprehended in the following propositions. 



The phenomena of electricity ai'e produced by a fluid of pecu- 

 liar nature, and therefore called the Electric jiuid, having the fol- 

 lowing properties. 



1,. Its particles repel each other with a force decreasing as tlie 

 distances increase. 



2. Its particles attract the particles of some ingredients in all 

 other bodies, with a force decreasing, according to the same law, 

 witli an increase of distance J and this attraction is mutual. 



3. The electric fluid is dispersed in the pores of other bodies, 

 and moves with various degrees of facility through the pores of 

 dilTcrent kinds of matter. In those bodies which we call Tzon- 

 electrics, such as water or metals, it moves without any perceiva- 

 ble obstruction j but in glass, resins, and all bodies called electrics, 

 it moves with very great difficulty, or is altogether immovable. 



5. The phenomena of electricity are of two kinds: — 1. Such 

 as arise from tlie actual motion of the fluid from a body contain- 

 ing more, into one containing less of it. 2. Such as do not im- 

 mediately arise from this transference, but are instances of its at- 

 traction and repulsion. 



These principles are applied at great length, and with a pleasing 

 degree of precision, by the ingenious theorist, to the Leydcn Phiul, 

 and to the various phenomena of electric attraction and repulsion. 

 It will be readily seen that iEpinus adopts, in substance, the 

 theor)-^ of Franklin ; of which, in some particulars, he presents 

 new and more satisfactory \iews than the American philosopher. 

 In the sixty-first volume of tlie Philosophical Transactions there is 

 a Dissertation, by the honourable Mr. Cavendish, on this subject, 

 wliich he considers as an extension and more accurate application 

 of T^pinus's thcor}'. 



Xott' (G)yp. 33. — ^The Gymnotns Electricus is a native of thoi 

 river of Surinam, in South America. Those which were carried 

 to England about eight years ago were about three or lour feet 

 long, and gave an electric shock, by putting one linger on the 



