xviii On the Method of rendering very fenjlhle 
every other body will give fome electricity . 1 can farther fay, 
that I have often obtained fome electricity even by Stroking the 
metal plate with my naked hand. 
28. It has been questioned, whether evaporation, fer- 
mentation, &c. produced any electricity, and the investigation 
is of confequence for determining fomething certain about 
the atmol'pherical electricity. I know that various perfons have 
attempted in vain to diScover eleCtricity in thofe cafes. Some ex- 
periments of mine relating to this purpoS'e had all'o failed ; never- 
theless, I entertained fome hopes of Succeeding, as I had for a 
great while imagined, that eftervefcence, diflolution, evapora- 
tion, & c. by disturbing the natural form and Situation of the 
particles of bodies, ought to have increafed or diminished the 
capacity of the bodies contiguous to thofe in aCtion, and con- 
sequently ought to have occasioned in fome cafes a rarefaction, 
and in others a condenfation of the eleCtric fluid. Being per- 
fuaded of this theory, I thought that the eleCtricity produced 
in thofe cafes was not difcovered, partly bccaufe of its fmall 
quantity, and partly becaul'e the inSulation was almoSt de- 
stroyed by the vapours that rofe, and I imagined, that by 
a greater accuracy, and by multiplying the experiments, 
I Should fome time or other difcover it *. It is about 
two years fince, that having gradually been able to condenfe 
the eleCtricity to a great degree by means of the above defcribed 
apparatus, I again thought of repeating my old experiments 
about the evaporation, &c. and entertained much better hopes 
of discovering Something new about it, almoft foreseeing the 
event ; but various occupations deferred thofe experiments till 
the months of March and April of the prefent year 1782, 
when being at Paris,- in company with fome members of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences, 1 at laSt fucceeded in obtaining 
clear figns of eleCtricity, nay and even the fpark, from the 
evaporation of water, from the Ample combuStion of coals, 
* All thefe thoughts are mentioned in a Latin diflertation, printed in the year 
1769, and entitled, De ni attraHiva ignis clettrici, at pbanomcnis indc pcndcntihus, ad 
jOHANNEM EAPTJSTAM EECCARIAM,'&C. 
and 
