[ 675 3 
In the fame manner may the electric fluid pafs 
from one body to another, in the form of a fpark, if 
the firfl: body communicates with the ground, and 
the other body is negatively ele^lrified, or in any 
other cafe in which one body is ftrongly difpofed 
to part with its eledtricity to the air, and the other 
is flrongly difpoled to receive it. 
In like manner, when the ele6lrlc fluid is made 
to pafs through water, in the form of a fpark, as in 
Signor Beccaria s * and Mr. Lane’s •f* experiments, 
I una^ine that the water, by the rapid motion of the 
eleftric fluid through it, is turned into an elaflic fluid, 
and fo much ratified as to make very little oppofitioe 
to its motion : and when ftones are burfl: or thrown 
out from buildings ftruck by lightning, in all pro- 
bability that effedl is caufed by the moiflure in the 
ffone, or fome of the flone itlelf, being turned into 
an elaflic fluid. 
It appears plainly, from the fudden riling of the 
water in Mr. Kinnerfley’s electrical air thermome- 
ter J, that when the eleCtric fluid palTes through the 
air, in the form of a fpark, the air in its paflage is 
either very much rarified, or intirely difplaced : and 
the burfting of the glafs veflels, in' Beccaria^s and 
Lane’s experiments, fhews that the fame thing hap- 
pens with regard to the water, when the eleClric fluid 
pafles through it in the form of a fpark. Now,, I 
fee no means by which the difplacing of the air o-r 
t 
4 ■■ 
^ Elettricifino artificiale c naturale, p. no. Prieftly, 
p. 209. 
't j hil. Tranf. 1767, p. 451. 
'I Phil. Tranf, 1763, p. 84. Prieftly, p. 216, 
4 R 2 water 
