4/6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1747-8. 



that the existence of these effluvia is proved by all those experiments in which a 

 stream of light is seen to issue from the electrified body ; particularly those streams 

 which are seen to issue in diverging rays from the end of the original conductor, 

 when made of metal, and reduced to a point; from their being felt to strike 

 against the hand like a blast of wind, when it is brought near the stream ; and 

 from that offensive smell which generally accompanies these experiments, and 

 which is always more perceptible, the more strongly the sphere is excited. 



That the particles composing these effluvia repel each other, appears from those 

 experiments in which two bodies, how different soever they may be in kind, repel 

 each other when they are sufficiently impregnated with these effluvia. As a 

 feather, by the exited tube; the several fibres of the same feather, or two cork 

 balls, which will be found strongly to repel each other, as long as they retain any 

 considerable quantity of these effluvia. Which property will always decrease, as 

 the quantity they contain diminishes. 



That these effluvia are strongly attracted by most if not all other bodies, is so 

 evident from almost all the electrical experiments, as to make any particular ex- 

 amples of it needless here; especially as there will be occasion to take notice of 

 the strong attraction between the electrical effluvia and water, in accounting for 

 these experments. 



Exper. 1 . If a vessel of water be hung to the prime conductor, having a syphon 

 in it of so small a bore, that the water will be discharged from it only in drops 

 on the water's becoming electrical by means of the machine ; it will immediately 

 run in a stream, and continue to do so, till the water is all discharged, provided 

 the sphere is continued in motion. 



That water does not run in a constant stream, but only in drops, from a syphon 

 of a small bore, is doubtless owing to the same cause by which it is sustained 

 above the level in capillary tubes. If therefore water is made to run in a stream 

 barely by its being impregnated with the electrical effluvia, it should follow, that 

 if one or more capillary tubes be placed in a vessel of water ; that which is sus- 

 tained in them would either sink down to a level with the rest of the water, on its 

 being made electrical, or at least that it would not continue at the same height as 

 before; but when the experiment is made, the water is found to continue exactly 

 at the same height, whether it is electrified or not. 



Again, if the bare electrifying the water was the cause of its nmning in a 

 stream, it would continue to run in the same manner, as long as the water con- 

 tinued electrical; which it will not do: for, on stopping the motion of the ma- 

 chine, the stream immediately ceases, and the water only drops from the syphon, 

 notwithstanding its being strongly impregnated with the electrical effluvia. To 

 account then for the water's being made to run in a stream in this experiment, 

 it is observed, that so long as the machine is in motion, there is a constant succes- 



