[ 395 ] 
which have manifeftcd themfelves in England , in 
Germany , and in Holland , as foon as I have been 
able to be allured thereof by a Repetition of them ? 
Have not I Ipoke and written concerning the Cure 
of the Paralytic of Geneva, as a Man truly perfuaded 
of the Truth of the Fatt, fince it had been fo juftly 
authenticated * ? By what Caprice then am I made 
more difficult of believing what palfed in Italy than 
in other Countries, if the Phenomena, which are 
pretended to have been feen there, could have been 
repeated j or if the Teftimonies, which they offered 
me, were not confiderably weakened, or entirely 
abolifhed, when, being in the Places themfelves, I 
was in a Condition of knowing their juft Value ? 
Had I only conlulted my perfonal Intereft, to 
whom would it have been more convenient than to 
me, to have adopted thefe Novelties ? If they were 
real, they would have been fo many evident Proofs 
of a Principle f, by which I have endeavoured to 
account for the ele&rical Phenomena : A Principle, 
which as yet has fufficiently well ferved me, and 
which, having offered itfelf to Mr. Watfon as well 
to myfelf, has enabled him likewite to give fome 
Inferences exceedingly probable concerning them : 
Would not Odours, would not medical Subftances, 
carried through the Pores of Glafs, prove, without 
Doubt, that the effluent eleftric Matter ferved them 
for a Vehicle ? If purging Subftances were forced to 
pafs 
* See my Eflay fur fehtfricitd des corps, at Fans, 17+6, 
and my Recnerches fur les Caufes par tic alter es des Ph<£nomene> electn~ 
ques, 17+9. 
f Effai fur tEttricite des Corps , p. 148. et luiv. 
