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which render this SuppoPition not improbable ; tho' 
I muft acknowledge I have not yet met with any- 
one that I think is quite concluftve. 
I fhall now proceed to {hew, how, from thefe 
-Principles, the '‘'Phenomena of fome of the more 
remarkable Experiments of Electricity may be ac- 
counted for. 
Exp. VII. 
Let a Rod of Iron, pointed at one End, be fuf- 
pended on filk Lines, as in Exp. the 6th , and by 
the Sphere be made electrical. When the Rod is 
ftrongly electrified, a Stream of Light in diverging 
Rays will be feen to iffue from its Point ; and if 
any non-eleCtric Body is held a few Inches from the 
Point, the Light will become vifible to a greater 
Diftance, and if the non-eleCtric Body is like wife 
pointed, a Light will feem to iffue from that in di- 
verging Rays in the fame manner as from the elec- 
trified Rod. But if the non electrical Body is flat, 
and held at the fame Diftance from the Rod as the 
pointed one was, no Light will be feen to come 
from it. 
The principal Phenomena to be accounted for in 
this Experiment are; Why a Light is only feen at 
the Point of the Rod, and not through the whole 
Length of it ? Why this Light is vifible to a greater 
Length, when the Point is approached by a Non- 
electric? And, Why a Light is lecn to iffue from 
the Non-eleCtric when it is pointed, and not when 
it is flat. 
Upon which I obferve, that whenever the Sphere 
is excited, the eleCtrical Effluvia are thereby put 
into Motion, and made to form an Atmofphere 
2 round 
