set at liberty, and
because a smell is said to be perceptible from electric sparks, and
even a taste which must be deduced from new combinations, or
decompositions, as in other explosions: add to this that the same
thing occurs, when electric shocks are passed through eggs in the
dark, or through water, a luminous line is seen like the explosion of
a train of gunpowder; lastly, whether light is really produced in the
passage of the Galvanic electricity through the eyes, or that the
sensation alone of light is perceived by its stimulating the optic
nerve, has not yet been investigated; but I suspect the former, as it
emits light from its explosion even in passing through eggs and
through water, as mentioned above.

VIII. _The shock from the coated jar, and of electric condensation._

1. When a glass jar is coated on both sides, and either vitreous or
resinous electricity is thrown upon the coating on one side, and there
is a communication to the earth from the other side, the same thing
happens as in the plate of air between the finger and prime conductor
above described; that is, the accumulated electricity, if it be of the
vitreous kind, on one coating of the glass jar will attract the
resinous part of the electricity, which surrounds or penetrates the
coating on the other side of the jar, and also repel the vitreous part
of it; but this occurs on a much more extensive surface than in the
instance of the plate of air between the finger and prime conductor.

The difference between electric sparks and shocks consists in this
circumstance, that in the former the insulating medium, whether of
air, or of thin glass, is ruptured in one part, and thus a
communication is made between the vitreous and resinous ethers, and
they unite immediately, like globules of quicksilver, when pressed
forcibly together: but in the electric shock a communication is made
by some conducting body applied to the other extremities of the
vitreous, and of the resinous atmospheres, through which they pass and
unite, whether both sides of the coated jar are insulated, or only one
side of it.

And in this line, as they reciprocally meet, they appear to explode
and give out light and heat, and a new combination of the two ethers
is produced, as a residuum after the explosion, which probably
occupies much less space than either the vitreous or resinous ethers
did separately before. At the same time there may be another
unrestrainable ethereal fl