THE 
EDINBURGH 
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 
Art. I. — Observations on Electrical Theories. By John 
Leslie, Esq. Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, and Corresponding Member of the 
Royal Institute of France. 
[The following Paper is the first the Author ever wrote on a Physi- 
cal Question, and w T ill he found to contain the germs of some 
of his subsequent investigations. It was drawn up at Etruria, 
in Staffordshire, where he then resided with the late Mr Wedg- 
wood, and bears the early date of the 20th of May 1791* The 
experiments on which it rests were performed with care, though 
on rather a small scale, and amidst a variety of avocations. 
The paper, though it would have been acceptable in another quar- 
ter, was, in token of respect and gratitude, sent to the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh. It was read at two of their meetings, on 
January 2. and March 5. 1792, and reserved for insertion in the 
forthcoming volume of their Transactions. But other commu- 
nications, of a later date, were successively placed before it ; and 
it was finally deferred to the publication of another volume, to 
give room for the insertion of a paper of the late Dr Monro, on 
the Action of Oblique Muscles, being the substance of a lecture 
which he had annually delivered in the College since the year 
1759- 
After waiting patiently for more than two years, the author could 
not help feeling some indignation at such unworthy treatment. 
He called back this unfortunate paper, and deposited it in his 
VOL. XT. NO. 21. JULY 1824. A 
