Obfervations in Electricity. 141 
effect of the charge paffing through the water; not fuf- 
peCting the danger of the electricity evaporating part of 
it, and exploding with fuch violence as might have been 
attended with very difagreeable confequences. 
to. That water-fpouts are really occafioned by elec- 
tricity I have long fufpeCted, from feveral circumftances ; 
but Mr. george forster, F. R. s. in his curious remarks 
and circumftantial defcription of one of thefe phenomena 
(Voyage round the World, vol. I. p. 191.) feems to have 
confirmed this matter beyond a doubt : the form of the 
column, the hail-ftones which fell at the time, and the 
flafh of lightning which appeared at the disjunction of 
the tube, are, I apprehend, as complete proofs as can be 
given, or as the cafe can admit or require. 
1 1. Some gentlemen have fuppofed, that the eleCtric 
matter is the caufe of the cohefion of the particles of bo- 
dies. If the eleCtric matter be as I fufpeCt, and my expe- 
riments and the foregoing notes feem to prove, a real ele- 
mentary fire inherent in all bodies, that opinion may 
probably be well-founded; and perhaps the foldering of 
metals and the cementation of iron by fire may be confx- 
dered as ftrong proofs, of the truth of their hypothefis. 
1 a. Dr. Priestley obferves (Experiments and Obfer- 
vations on Air, vol. I.p. 2 80.) That it is probable, that elec- 
5 tric 
