CHEMICAL ATTRACTION. 209 



igneous principle. This identity is indicated 

 by the fact, that when a current of the electric 

 fluid is made to combine with metals, until they 

 are melted or ignited, its properties are so far 

 changed, that it no longer produces a shock, 

 but in all respects exhibits the same pheno- 

 mena which result from the heat of combustion. 

 Dr. Hare attributes the explosive power of gun- 

 powder and other fulminating mixtures to elec- 

 tricity ; which is wholely unintelligible on the 

 supposition that caloric and the electric fluid 

 are distinct agents; for it is demonstrable that 

 the expansive force of all such compounds is 

 owing to their sudden conversion into gases, and 

 that gases are expanded by caloric as certainly 

 as that the elastic force of steam is due to the 

 same power. 



A thousand facts might be adduced to prove 

 that without caloric there could be no electricity. 

 Those light and highly combustible bodies which 

 afford the largest amount of caloric by friction, 

 such as furs, silks, woollens, resins, sulphur, 

 c. also afford the largest proportions of elec- 

 tricity during the same process, and therefore 

 have been termed electrics. Moreover, the 

 strong acids, which give out the most heat 

 during chemical action, afford the largest sup- 

 ply of electricity when acting on the metallic 

 plates of a voltaic battery. 



Again, those bodies which have the strongest 



