210 CHEMICAL ATTRACTION. 



attraction for caloric, such as metals, conduct 

 it most freely. The same is true of electricity. 

 Hence it is that both caloric and electricity 

 disappear most rapidly when in the vicinity of 

 good conductors, being attracted by them and 

 incorporated with their substance. It is thus 

 that flashes of lightning are absorbed by the 

 earth and rendered latent. Or if a light feather 

 be charged with electricity, and suspended in 

 the still air of a room, at equal distances from 

 sticks of resin, sulphur, glass, and metals, it will 

 approach the latter in preference to the former, 

 cteteris paribus, with a force and rapidity that 

 varies inversely as the squares of the distance. 



If it be true that caloric and electricity be 

 only modifications of the same agent, the elec- 

 tro-chemical theory becomes intelligible, and 

 may be reconciled with the chemical agency of 

 caloric. For example, those bodies which have 

 the strongest tendency to unite chemically with 

 each other, are said to be in opposite states of 

 electricity. It is also certain, that the same 

 bodies which contain different quantities of 

 caloric, are most disposed to unite chemically; 

 while those which have nearly the same re- 

 lations to caloric have little attraction for each 

 other, such as sulphur and phosphorus, potas- 

 sium and sodium the reason of which is, that 

 a transition of caloric from one body to another 

 is indispensable to all chemical combinations. 



