4.34 ANALOGIES OF 



universal law by which it repels its own particles, 

 and is attracted by ponderable matter, with forces 

 that vary inversely as the squares of the distance. 



The phenomena of electrical attractions and 

 repulsions are clearly resolvable into the same 

 law. 



It would be a needless waste of time to bring 

 forward the numerous proofs, that all the forces 

 of attraction and repulsion are inversely as the 

 squares of the distance. It has been demon- 

 strated by Buffon, Laplace, Coulomb, and other 

 philosophers, that the power of all emanations, 

 such as light, caloric, and electricity in the dif- 

 fused state, are subject to the same law, like 

 that of gravity. The ringing of electric bells, 

 the dancing of pith balls under an electrified 

 tumbler, of paper images, and many other simi- 

 lar experiments, performed for the amusement 

 of popular assemblies, are reducible to the above 

 law. When light leaves of gold, copper, silver, 

 zinc, &c. are brought near to the wire that con- 

 nects the extremities of a battery in action, or to 

 insulated metals when electrified by a common 

 machine, they are attracted by them. 



When treating of chemical attraction, (Book 

 II. Chap. II.), it was shown that caloric causes 

 oxygen to combine with all other elements, from 

 the slowest process of oxidation, as in the rusting 

 of metals, fermentation, &c. to the most rapid 

 combustion. Electricity produces the same 



