232 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1746. 



of time than those of the hollyhock, which are 10 minutes, though fresh; 

 whereas these act instantly, though kept for 24 hours; neither have these any 

 suction or convulsive motion; acting entirely still, and in the first water. At- 

 tempting to apply them to the opaque microscope after their action, they stuck 

 round the point like wet skins; but he observed that they burst only once, 

 throwing out all their pellucid matter, which is yellow, at the first discharge. 

 They act no otherwise in oil, but by emitting a matter much thinner than that 

 at bursting; but, having lain in oil for a minute, and put from thence into water, 

 they act instantly, and with a seeming additional force. Being put into malt- 

 spirits, they exhibit a very agreeable appearance : all those which emit, as in oil, 

 lie dead and still ; but those which neither burst nor emit, are thrown into so 

 violent an agitation, that they appear like animalcules ; sometimes joining ten or 

 a dozen together; on a sudden, an imperceptible force will throw a globule, 

 sometimes, 2 or 3, 3 parts over the area of the microscope; often 2 globules will 

 be whirled round with incredible swiftness, for the space of near a minute, then 

 separated by the same imperceptible swiftness, fly each a different way. They 

 will act thus, till the liquor may be supposed to dry up, when supplying them 

 with liquor will regain their motion; and though you put liquor often to them, 

 yet every time will give them that swiftness. On applying the magnifier, N° 2, 

 he found that it is the white unacting globules that do thus, and imagines that 

 they rise with that spirit which evaporates; and their not being volatile occasions 

 them to stop at top, and continue this motion as long as the liquid has any eva- 

 poration ; for after a certain time, they lie like the others which have acted. In 

 this liquid they burst, in such a manner, as that the places from whence they 

 burst are perceptible, fig. l6, and the pieces broken off very plain. 



On applying aquafortis to this farina, the shape and marks are instantly changed 

 to those marked in fig. l6; whereas on the hollyhock, it has no other effect than 

 burning up their capillary prickles. 



Electrical Observations. By the Rev. Henry Miles, D. D., F. R. S. 



N''479, p. 158. 



On using one of the boxes filled with pitch, wax, &c. for the person to be 

 electrified to stand on, after using it a little while successfully, he wiped the sur- 

 face of the pitch, &c. with a dry clean cloth, suspecting, from the place it had 

 stood in, some dampness might lodge on it. This done, he set up the box on 

 one side, and held a thread of trial at a proper distance, and found it to attract 

 and repel the same, but on setting it down and standing on it, by no means 

 could it be made appear that he was electrified, or any other person who stood on 

 it afterwards. He then took another box of the same sort, but made use of it 

 without wiping it, and it performed well. 



