[ 366 ] 
defcribed, the former immediately quitted their hold 
of the hangings, and dropped to the ground. The 
fame experiments held with the painted boards of the 
room ; and likewife with the looking-glafs ; to the 
laft of which, both the black and the white filk, ap- 
peared to adhere more tenacioufly, than to either of 
the former. 
I am afraid I have prefumed too much on the pa- 
tience of the Society, by giving fo full a detail of my 
experiments and obfervations, on a branch of elec- 
tricity, that takes its rife from fo lingular, and fo 
mean a fubjeCt as that of black and white filk : But 
however particular the fubjeCt may be, the properties 
of electricity that are thence experimentally deduced 
are of a general nature, and mull find a place in every 
true fyftem of electricity. If any apology be wanted, 
the belt I can make, is to endeavour to draw luch 
inferences from the experiments above recited, as 
may poflibly throw new light upon the theory of 
eleCtricity. 
But left I fhould fwell this paper to too large a fize; 
and as the feafon is at hand when the Society ufually 
adjourns for fome months j I think it beft to defer 
any matter I may have to offer, concerning the the- 
ory of eleCtricity, till a convenient time after our next 
meeting. I fhall only beg leave at prefent, to men- 
tion one or two things, which I have not hitherto 
had a proper opportunity of throwing out. 
It hath been laid, that the influence of colours in 
eleCtricity is no new difcovery; that Monf. Du Fay 
had treated at large upon the fubjeCt; and, after a va- 
riety of experiments, had concluded, that colours, as 
luch, had no effeCt in eleCtricity ; but that whatever 
was 
8 
