[ 3' 2 ]

Draw the excited tube from end to end, leisurely, along thepointed wire e, and the excited tube will be deprived of its re-dundancy of the electric fluid. : If you withdraw the excitedtube first from the end of the wire, and then the person removeshis finger from the side of the insulated glass tube, every thingremains as above, there is no appearance of any electric sign.May we not conclude reasonably from hence, that the excitedglass tube communicates its electricity to the wire, and causes thedivergency of the electrometers ? , '

As the experiments on the insulated rod are the basis, or key,to the present hypothetical system of electric attraction and re-pulsion, I shall pay a particular attention to them, and endea-vour to place the conclusions,, which appear to me to be errone-ous, drawn from the experiments on insulated rods, in a stillstronger light.

Preparation.

Take a glass tube, four feet long, fix it in a foot (fee fig. 2,plate II.) and let there be a moveable socket to flip up and downthe tube at pleasure, and to be fixed at any height by the helpof a spring. To the moveable socket fix another smaller one,parallel to the horizon, to admit the wire y, from which is sus-pended a small pith-ball by a fine flaxen thread, hanging aboutone inch from the wire e...

Experiment VII.

Excite the glass tube, bring it near to the ends of the wires eand g. According to the present hypothesis of electric attractionand repulsion, the atmosphere of the excited tube expels the na-tural