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but alio, that we are able to add to, or take from, that 
quantity of electricity, naturally adherent to bodies. 
By what denomination fhall we call this extraor- 
dinary power ? From its effeCts in thefe operations, 
fhall we call it eleCtricity? From its being a princi- 
ple neither generated nor deftroyed 5 from its being 
every-where and always prefent, and in readinefs to 
fhew itfelf in its effeCts though latent and unobferved, 
till by fome procefs it is produced into aCtion, and 
rendered vifible ; from its penetrating the denfeit and 
hardeft bodies, and its uniting itfelf to them ; and 
from its immenfe velocity ; fhall we, with Theo- 
phraftus, Boerhaave, Niewentyt, s’Gravefande, and 
other philofophers, call it elementary fire ? Or fhall 
we, from its containing the fubflance of light and 
fire, and from the extreme fmallnefs of its parts, as 
paffing through moft bodies we are acquainted with, 
denominate it, with Homberg and the chemifts, the 
chemical fulphureous principle, which, according to 
the doCtrines of thefe gentlemen, is univerfally dif- 
feminated .? We need not indeed be very follicitous in 
relation to its denomination : certain it is, that the 
power we are now treating about is, befides others, 
pofTelfed of the properties before -mentioned, and 
cannot 
See Phil. Tranf. Vol. XLIV. p. r y i 3. — 749, and explained 
further Vol. XLV. p. 95, et feq. and though the electric mat- 
ter may be taken from the atmofphere during a ftorm of thunder, 
or even when it is only charged with what are ufually called 
thunder-clouds, that is, when the atmofphere is replete with hete* 
rogeneous phlogiftic matter, yet it muft not be confidercd as com- 
ing from pure dry air, which, as I before mentioned, I conceive to 
contain in its natural ftate fcarce any of the electric matter, and is 
the agent, by which we are enabled to communicate electricity to 
other bodies. 
