No metal attracts, nor animal concretion we know,9 although polite and smooth; as we have made trial in elk's hoofs, hawks' talons, the sword of a sword-fish, tortoiseshells, sea-horse, and elephants' teeth, in bones, in hart's horn, and what is usually conceived unicorn's horn. No wood, though never so hard and polished, although out of some thereof electric bodies proceed; as ebony, box, lignum vite, cedar, &c. And, although jet and amber be reckoned among bitumens, yet neither do we find asphaltum, that is, bitumen of Judea, nor sea-coal, nor camphor, nor mummia, to attract, although we have tried in large and polished pieces. Now this attraction have we tried in straws and paleous bodies, in needles of iron equilibrated, powders of wood and iron, in gold and silver foliate; and not only in solid, but fluent and liquid bodies, as oils made both by expression and distillation, in water, in spirits of wine, vitriol, and aqua fortis.

But how this attraction is made, is not so easily deter mined: that it is performed by effluviums is plain, and granted by most; for electrics will not commonly attract, except they grow hot, or become perspirable. For if they be foul and obnubilated, it hinders their effluxion; nor if they be covered, though but with linen or sarsenet, or if a body be interposed, for that intercepts the effluvium. also a powerful and broad electric of wax or animi be held over fine powder, the atoms or small particles will ascend most numerously unto it; and if the electric be held unto the light, it may be observed that many thereof will fly, and be as it were discharged from the electric,1 to the distance

If

9 No metal attracts, nor animal concretion we know.] Browne is in error respecting all the substances which he mentions in this paragraph, as well as in preceding and following ones, as not susceptible of electrical excitation; for all of them are in fact electrics. But as many among the number, especially the metals, require very perfect insulation, before they can be made to manifest electricity by friction, as many others, especially the true gums, the animal concretions, and the woods, require also to be made very dry; and as some further precautions are necessary in certain cases, in order to insure the success of the experiment, our author's failure, and consequent errors on this subject, are readily explained.—Br.

be as it were discharged from the electric.] The true cause of this projection of the atoms," is to be found in the law of electrical attraction and repulsion: bodies similarly electrified, repel, and dissimilarly electri

sometimes of two or three inches. Which motion is performed by the breath of the effluvium issuing with agility; for as the electric cooleth, the projection of the atoms ceaseth.

The manner hereof Cabeus wittily attempteth, affirming that this effluvium attenuateth and impelleth the neighbour air, which returning home in a gyration, carrieth with it the obvious bodies unto the electric. And this he labours to confirm by experiments; for if the straws be raised by a vigorous electric, they do appear to wave and turn in their ascents. If, likewise, the electric be broad, and the straws light and chaffy, and held at a reasonable distance, they will not arise unto the middle, but rather adhere toward the verge or borders thereof. And, lastly, if many straws be laid together, and a nimble electric approach, they will not all arise unto it, but some will commonly start aside, and be whirled a reasonable distance from it. Now, that the air impelled returns unto its place in a gyration or whirling, is evident from the atoms or moats in the sun.

For when the sun so enters a hole or window, that by its illumination the atoms or motes become perceptible, if then by our breath the air be gently impelled, it may be perceived that they will circularly return, and in a gyration,2 unto their places again.

Another way of their attraction is also delivered; that is, by a tenuious emanation or continued effluvium, which after some distance retracteth into itself; as is observable in drops of syrups, oil, and seminal viscosities, which spun at length, retire into their former dimensions. Now these effluviums advancing from the body of the electric, in their return do carry back the bodies, whereon they have laid hold, within the sphere or circle of their continuities; and these they do not only attract, but with their viscous arms hold fast a good while after. And if any shall wonder why these effluviums issuing forth impel and protrude not the straw before they

fied, attract each other. The particles are first attracted by the excited electric, because they are in a dissimilar state of electricity to it; by contact with it, however, they acquire a similar state of electricity, and are, in consequence repelled from it.—Br.

2 gyration.] The same gyration appeares in thistledowne, and small feathers, and the smoke of a snuff, &c.—Wr.

can bring it back; it is because the effluvium, passing out in a smaller thread and more enlengthened filament, stirreth not the bodies interposed, but, returning unto its original, falls into a closer substance and carrieth them back unto itself. And this way of attraction is best received, embraced by Sir Kenelm Digby in his excellent treatise of bodies, allowed by Des Cartes in his Principles of Philosophy, as far as concerneth fat and resinous bodies, and with the exception of glass, whose attraction he also deriveth from the recess of its effluxion. And this in some manner the words of Gilbertus will bear. Effluvia illa tenuiora concipiunt et amplectuntur corpora, quibus uniuntur, et electris tanquam extensis brachiis, et ad fontem propinquitate invalescentibus effluviis, deducuntur. And if the ground were true, that the earth were an electric body, and the air but the effluvium thereof, we might have more reason to believe that from this attraction, and by this effluxion, bodies tended to the earth, and could not remain above it.3

Our other discourse of electricks concerneth a general opinion touching jet and amber, that they attract all light bodies, except ocymum or basil, and such as be dipped in oil or oiled; and this is urged as high as Theophrastus. But Scaliger acquitteth him; and had this been his assertion, Pliny would probably have taken it up, who herein stands out, and delivereth no more but what is vulgarly known. But Plutarch speaks positively in his Symposiacks, that amber attracteth all bodies, excepting basil and oiled substances. With Plutarch consent many authors, both ancient and modern; but the most inexcusable are Lemnius and Rueus: whereof the one, delivering the nature of minerals mentioned in Scripture, the infallible fountain of truth, confirmeth their virtues with erroneous traditions; the other, undertaking the occult and hidden miracles of nature, accepteth this for

3

And if the ground, &c.] That there is a constant breathing of the earth every twelve houres, where itt may easily break forthe, as in the botome of the ocean, is more than probable by the rising of the seas every twelve houres, which wee call the flow, which when it is lifted up by the volubility of its nature, is apt to follow the leading of the moone, but is not raised by itt, because itt keeps a constant course, if there be no strong impediment, as well when she is under, as when above the earthe.-Wr.

one, and endeavoureth to allege a reason of that which is more than occult, that is, not existent.

Now herein, omitting the authority of others, as the doctrine of experiment hath informed us, we first affirm, that amber attracts not basil is wholly repugnant unto truth. For if the leaves thereof or dried stalks be stripped into small straws, they arise unto amber, wax, and other electricks, no otherwise than those of wheat and rye; nor is there any peculiar fatness or singular viscosity in that plant that might cause adhesion, and so prevent its ascension. But that jet and amber attract not straws oiled, is in part true and false; for, if the straws be much wet or drenched in oil, true it is that amber draweth them not, for then the oil makes the straw to adhere unto the part whereon they are placed, so that they cannot rise unto the attractor; and this is true, not only if they be soaked in oil, but spirits of wine or water. But if we speak of straws or festucous divisions lightly drawn over with oil, and so that it causeth no adhesion, or if we conceive an antipathy between oil and amber, the doctrine is not true; for amber will attract straws thus oiled, it will convert the needles of dials made either of brass or iron, although they be much oiled; for in these needles consisting free upon their centre, there can be no adhesion. It will likewise attract oil itself, and if it approacheth unto a drop thereof, it becometh conical, and ariseth up unto it, for oil taketh not away his attraction, although it be rubbed over it. For if you touch a piece of wax, already excitated, with common oil, it will, notwithstanding, attract, though, not so vigorously as before; but if you moisten the same with any chemical oil, water, or spirits of wine, or only breathe upon it, it quite amits its attraction, for either its effluences cannot get through, or will not mingle with those substances.

It is likewise probable the ancients were mistaken concerning its substance and generation: they conceiving it a vegetable concretion made of the gums of trees, especially pine and poplar, falling into the water, and after, indurated or hardened, whereunto accordeth the fable of Phaeton's sisters. But surely the concretion is mineral, according as is delivered by Boëtius. For either it is found in mountains it becometh.] i. e. the oyle becometh.—Wr.

and mediterraneous parts, and so it is a fat and unctuous sublimation in the earth, concreted and fixed by salt and nitrous spirits wherewith it meeteth. Or else, which is, most usual, it is collected upon the sea shore, and so it is a fat and bituminous juice coagulated by the saltness of the sea.5

It

5

It is likewise probable, &c.] The whole progress of subsequent, and especially of recent observations and experiments on amber, has tended to show that the older was the more correct opinion; and that Sir Thomas concluded too hastily from its being found on the sea-shore, and even in deep mines, that its origin could not be vegetable. Brongniart and Leman (distinguished French mineralogists), both consider it a vegetable juice concreted-partly by the lapse of time—and modified by its subterraneous locality. It is found in the greatest abundance in beds of fossilized timber, at considerable depth, and beneath several other strata, near the coast of Prussia: it occurs there in the very midst of the timber-which appears to have produced it. Leman remarks, that a crust of dirt and other foreign substances, is often found on the surface of amber, like that which is contracted by vegetable gum in flowing over the bark of the tree, or falling on the ground. Specimens found on the sea-shore, or (occasionally) in alluvial deposits, are usually free from the crust. It is to be supposed that amber may have been the gum of a now extinct tree. This implied antiquity has been argued from the class of formations in which it is most copiously met with, and from the fact that the insects, &c. inclosed in it, are not the recent species, nor even analogous to those now existing in the same spot, tropical genera being found in the amber of northern latitudes. may be admitted as probable, that we possess the ambers of several different trees for very distinct varieties of it are known; cne of which is noticed by Brongniart as destitute of the succinic acid, which he considers the chief criterion by which amber is distinguishable from mellite, and the fossilized resins, and from gum copal. Its original fluidity is unquestionable, from the delicacy of many species found in it. The author of the article AMBER, in the Encyc. Brit. considers it rather likely to have been softened by the action of the sun than to have been ever liquid. One of the reasons adduced, seems to oppose rather than to support this opinion. 'Drops of clear water are sometimes preserved in amber. These have doubtless been received into it while soft, &c." More probably when fluid. The same writer mentions an assertion of Girtanner, that amber is an "animal product—a sort of honey or wax formed by the red ant, formica rufa." But after detailing some of Girtanner's observations, he represents his opinion as being that "amber is nothing but a vegetable oil, rendered concrete by the acid of ants." The article contains other incorrect statements;that amber is the basis of all varnishes; and that "it seems generally agreed upon, that amber is a true bitumen of a fossil origin." This might be more generally the opinion when the article was first written -but is not so now; and therefore it ought not to have remained unaltered in the edition now publishing of the Enc. Brit., in which the