To get over this difficulty, we can refer to what we have said, that is, that glass may be thoroughly pervaded by the ether in an almost infinitesimal degree, and suppose that the electricity may have discovered, or rather been led to, the ether contained in the glass tube or bulb, and so found its way to one of the oozing holes we have said might exist in the glass; even the oozing hole may not have passed quite through the glass, and there might remain a very thin film to be burst open before perforation was complete. Also we may note that the zone which performed the office of carrier to the side of the bulb was much more probably composed of residual ether than residual air or gas, or at the least formed a preponderating part of the carrying element. The fact of the hole being so minute "that several days were occupied before equilibrium of pressure was established between the inside and outside of the bulb" on such occasions, goes far to prove that the carrying agent through the glass must have been the natural carrier of electricity, light, and heat. We cannot conceive that an eruptive force could open such a small passage through the glass of the bulb, but we can conceive that it should be able to force itself through a very minute passage already open, and even join two or more such passages into one. This conception makes us think of the many oozing passages there may be through a glass bulb; passages so minute that the ether might pass through them, but nothing so gross as any of our known gases; in fine, so minute that glass, for all the compact look it presents to us, may be only as a very fine sponge in respect to the ether. However, that the perforations related in the above quotation were large enough for air to pass through them there can be no doubt, otherwise the equilibrium between the pressures on the inside and outside of the bulb could not have been re-established even after many days; for there still remains the idea that the oozing holes might be so small that nothing but the ether could pass through them.