[ 35 * ] 
and marking the degree of it, I had recourfe to the 
little pocket electrometer of Mr. Canton’s contrivance, 
which is defcribed in Vol. XLVIII. N°. 93. of the 
TranfaCtions of this Society. When this indrument 
is fupported by glafs, it not only thews the attraction 
and repulfion, in general, of electrified bodies, which 
is one of the moll effential properties of electricity, 
but it didinguifhes between the pofitive and negative 
date of eleCtricity, according to the reciprocal attrac- 
tion or repulfion of the little balls. By the terms 
pofitive and negative , I mean only to denote the op- 
pofition of the two different dates. The particular 
allotment of the one or the other term appears to me 
to be arbitrary ; but that I may not differ unneceffa- 
rily from others, I fhall apply the word pofitive to 
that date, in which a body is found to be, when 
eleCtrified by the clear glafs tube, rubbed by the 
hand; and the word negative , when electrified by 
the rough or opaque glafs tube, of Mr. Canton’s in- 
vention ( defcribed in the Tranfaction mentioned 
above), when rubbed in the fame manner, or by ful- 
phur or wax excited. In other words, when the 
body is in a date of repulfion with the former of thofe 
tubes, we fay it is pofitively electrified, and nega- 
tively when in a date of repulfion with the latter, or 
with fulphur or wax. 
Nothing appears to be more wonderful than this 
double date : here eleCtricity feems to counteract it- 
felf, the eleCtrified body attracting in the one, what 
it would repel in the other cafe, and vice verfa. As 
this remarkable property may be traced, in its confe- 
quences, through almod all eleCtrical appearances, I 
cannot but think it merits great attention, and, when. 
it 
