HE it* 
tiectrical, or capable of being made so j 
and it is well known, that electrical bodies 
both attract and repel. 2. Both attraction 
and repulsion are very conspicuous in all 
inagnetical bodies. 3. Sir Isaac Newton 
has shown from experiments, that the sur- 
faces of two convex glasses repel each 
other. 4. The same great philosopher has ex- 
plained the elasticity of the air, by supposing 
its particles mutually to repel each other. 
R. The particles of light are, in part at 
least, repelled from the surfaces of all bo- 
dies. 6. Lastly, it seems highly probable, 
that the particles of light mutually repel 
each other, as well as the particles of air. 
The same gentleman ascribes the cause of 
repulsion, as well as that of attraction, to 
the immediate effect of God’s will ; and as 
attraction and repulsion are contraries, and 
consequently cannot, at the same time, be- 
long to the same substance, the doctor sup- 
poses there are in nature two kinds of mat- 
ter, one attracting, the other repelling ; 
and that those particles of matter which 
repel each other, are subject to the gene- 
ral law of attraction in respect of other 
matter. A repellent matter being thus 
supposed, equally dispersed through the 
whole universe, the doctor attempts to ac- 
count for many natural phenomena by 
means thereof. He thinks light is nothing 
but this repellent matter put into violent 
vibrations, by the repellent corpuscles 
which compose the atmosphefe of the sun 
and stars ; and that, therefore, we have no 
reason to believe they are gulphs of fire, 
but, like the rest of the heavenly bodies, 
inhabitable worlds. From the same prin- 
ciples, he attempts to explain the nature 
of fire and heat, the various phenomena of 
the magnet, and the cause of the variation 
of the needle : and, indeed, it is difficult, 
if not impossible, by the doctrine of attrac- 
tion alone, to account for all the pheno- 
mena observable in experiments made with 
magnets, which may now be solved by ad- 
mitting this doctrine of a repellent fluid ; 
but whether it will be sufficient to account 
for all the particular phenomena of nature, 
which are the proper tests of an hypothesis, 
time and experience alone must determine. 
The doctor also endeavours to show, that 
the attractions of cohesion, gravity, and 
magnetism, are the same, and that by these 
two active principles, eiz. attraction and- 
repulsion, ail the phenomena of nature may 
be explained ; but as his ingenious treatise 
on this subject is laid down in a series of 
propositions, all comiected together, it would 
be impossible to do justice to his argu- 
RES 
tnents without transcribing the whole : we" 
shall therefore refer the curious to the boob 
itself. 
According to ’sGravesande and others, 
when light is reflected from a polished 
spherical surface, the particles of light do 
not strike upon the solid parts, and so re- 
bound from them ; but are repelled from 
the surface, at a small distance before they 
touch it, by a power extended all over the 
said polished surface. And Sir Isaac New- 
ton observes, that the rays of light are also 
expelled by the edges of bodies, as they 
pass near them ; so as to make their sha- 
dows, in some cases, larger than they would 
otherwise be. 
REPULSION, in chemistry. Sir Isaac 
Newton demonstrated, that if this law be 
correct, then the force, by which the par- 
ticles of air recede from each other, in- 
creases or diminishes at the same rate that 
the distance between the centres of the 
particles, or atoms, of which it is com- 
posed, diminishes or increases, or, which 
is the same thing, that the repulsion be- 
tween the particles of gaseous bodies is 
always inversely as the distance of their 
centres from each other. Now the dis- 
tance between the centres of the atoms of 
elastic fluids always varies as the cube root 
of their density, taking the word in its 
common acceptation. Thus, if the density 
of air, under the mean pressure of the at- 
mosphere, be supposed 1 ; if it be forced 
into ith of its bulk, its density becomes 8. 
In these two cases we have the distance 
between the atoms of air inversely as the 
cube root of 1 to the cube root of 8, or as 
1 to 2. So that if air be compressed into 
ith of its bulk, the distance between its 
particles is reduced to one half, and of 
course the repulsion between them is dou- 
bled. If air be rarified 300 times, we 
have its density reduced to ^th of that 
of common air. Here we have the distance 
between tlie atoms of common and the ra. 
retied air, as \/3 : \/ 300; or nearly as 
1 : 7. So that when air is rarefied 300 
times, the distance between its particles 
becomes almost seven times greater, and 
of course their repulsion is diminished al- 
most sevenfold. 
RESCUE, or Rescocs, is the taking 
away and setting at liberty, against law, 
any distress taken for rent, or services, or 
damage feasant ; but the more general 
notion of rescous is, the forcibly liberating 
another from an arrest or some legal com- 
mitment. This is a high offence, and- sub- 
jects the offender not only to an action at 
