VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANS ACTIOKS. 313 



From our last experiments, we are led to think, that the globules of the 

 blood, if by friction they acquire an electrical attractive virtue, must of neces- 

 sity repel one another ; and that electricity is not so properly called an attractive 

 and repulsive virtue, as a virtue attractive of those bodies that are not attractive 

 themselves, and repulsive of those that are ; and that this repulsive force of the 

 electrical blood-globules, excited by friction, as they flow in their channels (and 

 particularly in the small ones, and perhaps more so in those of the lungs, where 

 the refrigerating power of the air may assist, as Dr. Hales has observed) ; this 

 repulsive force of the blood-globules, may be the great cause that hinders the 

 blood from coagulating as it circulates ; may be the great cause of the constant 

 perspiration in a healthy state, and of the increase of it, caeteris paribus, in pro- 

 portion as the velocity and friction of the blood increases. 



If these things are so, the necessity of exercise appears more plainly than ever, 

 in order to keep the body in a healthy state, as we may observe here the very 

 steps that nature makes use of to free herself from her suppressions. 



^n Account of some of the Electrical Experiments made hy Granvile JVheler, 

 Esq. at the Royal Society s house, on May 11, 1737. By C. Mortimer^ 

 M.D. R.S. Seer. N°453, p. 112. 



Exper. 1 . — A large octavo book was placed horizontally on silk lines, and 

 the upper surface strewed with several pieces of leaf brass, all or the greater 

 part of which flew upwards, from one another, and off the book, on holding an 

 excited tube at a little distance underneath the book. 



Exper. 1. — Two lines were extended horizontally the whole length of the 

 library, being between 30 and 40 feet, distant from one another about 2 feet 

 at one end, and meeting together in a knot at their other ends, the whole 

 lines being packthread, except 5 feet of silk line tied at each of the separated 

 extremities, as well as at the knot where the other ends united, in order to 

 stop the current of the effluvia. On the united extremities was placed hori- 

 zontally a piece of card about 2 inches square, on which were strewed pieces of 

 leaf brass. The excited tube being held at a little distance under the separated 

 extremities of the packthread, the leaf brass on the card at the other end flew 

 upwards, and off the card. 



Exper. 3. — Five glass receivers, placed one within another, on an electrical 

 cement of bees-wax and Venice turpentine, were all exhausted. In the inner- 

 most a fine white thread, about 5 inches long, was suspended from the crown 

 of it, by means of a little cement made of bees- wax and oil. " On moving the 

 excited tube up and down near the side of, and horizontally to and from the 



VOL. VIII. S s 



