VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 15 



the non-electric was brought to a proper distance. But this was vastly short of 

 that mentioned by Mr. Bose, not only in its lustre, but as it never was general, 

 hardly ever showing itself in 2 parts of the body at the same time. This want of 

 success after many trials, as he by no means doubted Mr. Bose's veracity, in- 

 duced him to conclude, that either some very essential part of the apparatus had 

 been suppressed by the author, or that the air of Germany, being on the conti- 

 nent, was more dry, and more fit, than that of our island. It was difficult in- 

 deed to allow this last, as the experiment had failed here, after the long continu- 

 ance of a very dry season. This want of success occasioned many persons here, 

 well versed in these matters, to conclude, that the experiments in electricity had 

 been carried farther in Germany than in England, 



However, some time after, Mr. W. found that this experiment, in the man- 

 ner before mentioned, had been made no where on the continent, Wittemberg 

 excepted ; and Mr. Jallabert at Geneva, in his Treatise on Electricity, says, that 

 he had likewise attempted it ; but instead of beatification, he saw from the hair 

 of the head of the person electrized, especially from the back part, a great num- 

 ber of luminous points. These, he says, were likewise observable on his clothes, 

 which were made of a mixture of thread and cotton, more especially on their 

 borders. When the person electrized changed his situation on the pitch, on 

 which he stood, the place he left appeared luminous. What this gentleman 

 mentions besides is very nearly like to what Mr. W. experienced, as above related. 

 Mr. J. says also, that he believes Mr. Bose had been the only person, who had 

 made the beatification succeed. 



A person here however exhibited to the public the famous experiment of beati- 

 fication, found out, as he says, by a German professor. Whether he knew how 

 this experiment was said to be done, or whether it was with him as with many 

 of the discoverers of the longitude, and of the quadrature of the circle, Mr. W. 

 does not determine; but thus it is, that his experiment has been exhibited as Mr. 

 Bose's for 2 or 3 years. 



Mr. W. is unwilling to be thought to detract from the merit of this experi- 

 ment, which he thinks a very beautiful one ; but he takes upon him to say, that 

 it dilFers as essentially from every part of that said to have been made by Prof. 

 Bose, as any 2 electrical experiments whatever. 



In a letter Mr. W. wrote afterwards to Mr. Bose, among other things ac- 

 quainting him of not being able to make the beatifying experiment succeed ; and 

 that nobody any where had been able to do it, so that the power of seeing this 

 extraordinary phenomenon was yet with himself alone. Mr. W. desired of him 

 farther, that if any material part of the process had been omitted in his writings, 

 he would communicate it ; for that some people here were not quite satisfied of 

 its having ever been made. To this he was so obliging as to send an answer 



