A treatise on the nature and property of fire. In three essays. I. Shewing the cause of vitality, and muscular motion.... II. On electricity. III. Shewing the mechanical cause of magnetism; and why the compass varies in the manner it does / by John Freke.

  • Freke, John, 1688-1756.
Date:
1752
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the nature and property of fire. In three essays. I. Shewing the cause of vitality, and muscular motion.... II. On electricity. III. Shewing the mechanical cause of magnetism; and why the compass varies in the manner it does / by John Freke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    * Tricks, and fuglerfhip of the electrical ‘ Machines in the Infancy of the Difco- ‘ very, You alone transferred your At- 4 tention from the Effects to the Caufe, and 4 gave the Clew 4 Difcovery, only imagined by the An- 4 tients, but now fujfciently proved, that 4 this Fire is a Fluid univerfally difperfed, 4 in falutary Proportion ; which is not 4 inherent to the eleSlrical Apparatus, but 4 collected by the Enchirefis of it out of 4 that ambient Element, fo as to exhibit 4 thofe various Operations of it, which 1 amazed fo much at fir ft, efpecially in ' the Property of its Velocity ; which is 4 JlriElly that of our Ideas, congenial with, 4 and perhaps generated by, the fame 4 Element. But, my God ! what an Open- ‘ ing has this Difcovery given, if duly 4 improved; if once regularly purfued 4 from its firft Principles, and reduced 4 into a regular Syfiem ! Probably, in 4 fuch Cafe, Experimentalifls would have 4 no longer Reafon to complain of the Bi-