the Light of Bodies in a State of Comhujiion, 2o*t 



fparks, when viewed at a dlftance, bear a reddifh hue. Such 

 are the explolioiis which have pafied through water, fpirits of 

 wine, or any bad condutflor, when confined in a tube whofe 

 diameter is not more than an inch. The reafon of thefe 

 appearances feems to be, that the weaker the fpark or explofon 

 IS, the lefs is the light which efcapes ; and the more vidble 

 the eife6l o^ any medium which has a power to abforb fome of 

 that light. 



The preceding obfervations concerning elecrrical licht were 

 the refult of my attempts to arrange, under general heads, 

 the principal Angularities attending it. They may, perhaps, 

 affift others in determining how far they may have led my mind 

 aflray in giving birth to a theory which I would now briefly 

 defcribe in a few queries* 



L If we confider all bodies as compounds, w^hofe conftltuent 

 parts are kept togeth-er by attracting one another with different 

 forces, can we avoid concluding, that the operations of that 

 attradive force are regulated, not only by the quality, but the 

 quantity likewile of thofe component parts ? If an union of a 

 certain number of one kind of particles, with a certain num- 

 ber of a fecond and third kind of particles, forms a particular 

 body, muft not the bond w^hich keeps that body together be 

 weakened or ftrengthened by increaiing or diminlfhing any one 

 of the different kinds of particles which enter into its confli- 

 tution • 



II. When, to the natural fhare of the electric fiuid al- 

 ready exifling in the body, a frefh quantityr'of the fame 

 fluid is added, muft not fome of the component parts of that 

 body efcape ; or muft not that attractive force which kept all 

 together be fo far weakened as to let loofe fome conftituent 



partSj., 



