1 30 Mr. henly’s Experiments and 
diftinguifhed by the names they bear, fo have I ever con- 
fidered eledfricity as a fluid Jut generis , and properly cha- 
radterifed by the term eledfricity, eledfric fluid, or eledfric 
matter; and have always avoided the term eledfric fire, 
as conveying a confided idea of adfual inflammation, 
burning, See. : but I now begin really to doubt, whether 
another appellation might not be applied with greater 
propriety ; whether eledfricity may not be confidered as a 
pure, ethereal, elementary fire, inherent in all bodies, inti- 
mately connedted or blended with an earthy or other bafe, 
and apparently, though not adtually, remaining in it in a 
quiefeent ftate, till roufed into adtion by fome proper ap- 
plication, as motion, or rather fridfion, which may, and 
probably does, colledt it in our experiments. (But can 
motion convey inftantaneoufly that which is not material, 
but only a quality, a property, an accident, or affection, 
of matter, through fuch circuits as thofe of Dr. watson, 
and produce fuch aftonifhing effedfs at the interruption 
of thofe circuits? Befides,in Dr. franklin’s molt curious 
and decifive experiment of charging the Leyden bottle 
with its own eledfricity, the glafs undergoes no fridfion 
whatfoever; but the eledfricity inherent in it is limply ex- 
haufted from one of its furfaces, and forced round upon 
the other by the eledfrical apparatus : the fame may be 
aflerted of bodies prefented toward a condudf or negatively 
5 eledfrifiedj 
