[ 3+ 1 ] 
dodlrine of plus and minus. M. Du Tour of Riom, 
has fent the Abbe Nollet a memoir, which he has 
likewife been fo kind as to fend me, containing a re- 
view of thefe experiments, from which he thinks it 
very eafy to refolve all thefe phenomena, upon the 
dodrine of fimuitaneous affluence and effluence of the 
eledtric matter. 
The eighth letter is addrefled to M. De Romas, 
afleflbr to the prefidial of Nerac, and contains remarks 
upon eledlrical kites; upon Father Ammerfin’s man- 
ner of preparing and uflng wood to injulate bodies, in 
making eledlrical experiments ; and likewife fome 
obfervations concerning the dodlrine of fimuitaneous 
affluence and effluence of the eledlric matter. M. De 
Romas, in flying his eledlrical kite, was the firft who 
ufed a cord compofed of hemp and wire. This com- 
pounded cord conducted the eledlricity of the cloud's 
far more perfedlly than a hempen cord would do, even 
though it was wetted ; and this cord being terminated 
by one of dry filk,- enabled the obferver, by a proper 
management of the apparatus, to make what experi- 
ments he thought proper, without danger to himfelf. • 
The Abbe Nollet, however, defires M. De Romas to 
be very cautious in making thefe experiments, and 
not too much to confide in his filk lines ; as the vaft- 
nefs of the eledlrical matter in thunder-dorms mav 
* 
overcome the property of the filk, and even make it 
a condudlor of eledlricity, : and hazard the life of the 
obferver. The quantity of eledlricity brought by M. 
De Romas’s kite from the clouds has been fo great, 
that, on the 26th of Auguft 1756, “ the dreams of 
“ fire were an inch thick, and ten feet long, which 
“ were conducted by the cord of the kite to the 
“ non- 
