204. KLECTRfCITf’. strated by touching a globe repeatedly till the electricity was reduced to 4. Hence we must conclude, that the electric fluid does not form active atmospheres around bodies, by the action of whose particles in contact (mathematical Or physical) the phenomena of attraction and repulsion are produced, but by the action of the fluid in the body, agreeable to the theo ry of /Epinus. t Such are the observations of Mr. Coulomb. They are extremely valuable, because they confirm in the completest manner the legitimate consequences of the theory. We think that the materiality of that which is transferred from place to place in the exhibition of electric phenomena* is greatly confirmed by some observations of Dr. Wilson’s in the Pantheon. When a spark was taken from the whole of the long wire extended in that vast theatre, the sensation was so different from a spark which conveyed even a much greater quantity of fluid from a pretty large, but compact, surface, that they could hardly be compared. The last was like the abrupt twitch with the point of a hooked pin, as if pulling off a point of the skin; the spark from the long wire was more like the forcible piercing with a needle, not very sharp, breaking the skin, and pushing it inward. We had this account from the Doctor in conversation. He as* cribed it, with seeming justice, to the momentum acquired by the fluid accelerated along that great extent of wire.