Account of a 'Thunder form in Scotland. 14-* 
man’s body does contain only a J mall quantity of electrical 
fluid ; neither is there the fmalleft reafon to believe fuch an hy- 
pothecs, which appears, on many accounts, to be completely 
erroneous. And, if that hypothesis be erroneous, the objec- 
tion to the Strength of an eleCtrical returning Stroke remains 
perfectly unfupported by argument. 
When a body is faid to be phis or poftive , it Amply means, 
that the body contains more eleCtricity than it does in its un- 
eleCtrified, that is to fay, natural lhate ; but does not Signify, 
that fuch body is completely Saturated * with eleCtricity. In 
like manner, when a body is faid to be minus or negative , it 
only Signifies, that the body contains lejs than its natural Share 
of eleCtricity ; but does not imply, that fuch body is completely 
exhaufed of the eleCtricity which it contains in its natural 
State. 
Now, the Strength of natural eleCtricity is foimmenfe, when 
compared to the very weak effeCts of our largeSt and beSt contrived 
eleCtrical machines, that I conceive, that we cannot, by means 
of artificial eleCtricity, expel, from a man’s body, the thou- 
fandth (or perhaps even the ten thoufandth) part of the elec- 
trical fluid which it contains, when in its natural State. 
§ 25. That hypothefis, by which natural phenomena are 
eafily accounted for, has a better claim to our attention than 
an oppofite hypothefis, which prevents thofe phaenomena from 
being intelligibly explained. 
There is no reafon whatever for concluding, that any elec- 
trical machine of any given fize is capable of rendering a con- 
ducting body either completely plus , or completely minus •, but far 
otherwife. And it would have been as logical, for any perfon, 
fome years ago (when eleCtrical machines were not brought tc 
* See Principles of Ele&ricity, § 342. 
their 
