The phenomena of magnetism were accounted for, in the time of Gilbert, by means of emanating effluvia, and he applies the same theory to the explanation of electrical attraction, imagining it to be performed in the same manner as the attraction of cohesion. Two drops of water, rush together when they are brought into contact, and electrics, he says, are virtually brought into contact by means of their effluvia. _Effluvia illa tenuiora concipiunt et amplectuntur corpora, quibus uniuntur, et electris tanquam extensis brachiis, et ad fontem propinquitate, invalescentibus effluviis, deducuntur._ “Those subtle effluvia continually embrace certain bodies, to which they are united, as it were by their extended electric arms; and the effluvia prevailing, the bodies are drawn to the contiguous source of the effluvia.” Gilbert has been stiled the father of modern electricity; and when we consider how little was known of the subject prior to his time, and the merit that belongs to himself, not only from his own experiments, but also from turning the attention of philosophers to a new branch of natural science, we cannot but allow that he eminently deserves the title. Cabeus followed Gilbert, but did little else than add to the list of electrics, wax, gum elemi, Gum guaiaci, Pix Hispanica and Gypsum. Thirty years after the publication of Gilbert’s work, the celebrated Sir Kenelm Digby, in his “Treatise of the nature of Bodies,” touches upon electricity: but as the age in which he lived was still busying itself with the hypothetical philosophy of Aristotle, so this philosopher in what he says of electricity, appears to be rather amusing himself in inventing theories, to explain the manner in which electric attraction is performed, than in advancing the science by new facts and experiments. His theory of electric attraction is, however, of some celebrity: it was allowed by his contemporary Des Cartes, in his principles of philosophy, and was embraced by the chief writers of his age; though it does not differ essentially from that of Gilbert. “Attraction (says he) is made 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 to their dimensions. Now these effluviums advancing from the body of an 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 effluvium issuing forth, impel and protrude not the straw before they 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 into its original, falls into a closer substance and carrieth them back into itself.”