296 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1752. 



striking bodies externally and internally, even to their smallest parts ; the re- 

 markable example we have of this effect in the Leyden experiment ; the idea 

 which we might truly adopt in supposing a greater degree of electric power, &c. 

 all these points of analogy, which I have been some time meditating, begin to 

 make me believe that one might, by taking electricity for the model, form to 

 oneself, in regard to thunder and lightning, more perfect and more probable 

 ideas, than what have been offered hitherto, &c.' 



To demonstrate, that glass is not absolutely impermeable to the electric fluid, 

 the Abbe offers the following experiment : Let the neck of a small thin phial a, 

 fig. 1 5, pi. 6, be placed in that of the receiver b ; and lute it in such a manner, 

 as that the air cannot pass through their joining. Exhaust the receiver, and 

 pour the little phial 3 parts flill of water, and conduct the electricity into it by 

 means of an iron wire, suspended to the conductor. Make the experiment in a 

 dark place, and for the greater surety fix the receiver to the plate of the air- 

 pump, not with wet leathers as usual, but with soft cement. You will see the 

 electric matter pass, as through a sieve, through the small phial into the receiver, 

 and present itself in an infinite number of luminous streams, of extraordinary 

 beauty ; and if you do not take care you will be smartly shocked, as in the Ley- 

 den experiment, by laying one hand on the receiver, and touching the plate of 

 the air-pump with the other. 



To prove that in the Leyden experiment the electrical virtue, or power of 

 giving a shock, does not reside only in the glass, make the following experiment: 

 Electrize a phial two-thirds full of water ; pour this water into another thin 

 phial, placed on a glass stand ; plunge an iron wire into it, and attempt, while 

 the phial is in one hand, to draw a spark with the other : it is certain that if this 

 is done with a little readiness, you will make the Leyden experiment with this 

 water.* Possibly you may not always succeed with water ; but with mercury, 

 under the same treatment, it never fails. Whence proceeds the power of giving 

 the shock to the second glass, if it is not by means of the water, which it has 

 received ? 



Electrize a bolt-head of glass, void of air, and sealed hermetically ; you may 

 make use of it for the Leyden experiment, and you will succeed. Is there not 

 then a communication between the exterior and interior surface of the glass ? 

 And is it not evident further, that the electric matter, which is perceived running 

 >vithin like a torrent of fire, passes through the glass ? 



* Some years ago I showed this experiment to several members of the r. s., and not only produced 

 the Leyden experiment with it, but by pouring the electrized water into a basin, held in one hand 

 of an assistant standing on cakes of wax, who, on his presenting a finger of his other hand to some 

 warm spirit of wine in a spoon, held in the hand of a person standing on the floor, set it on fire. I 

 then considered this experiment as a proof of the electricity being accumulated in the water. W. Wat- 

 son. — Orig. 



