ace be also fulfilled.

618. The effect is evidently produced by most, if not all, solid bodies,
weakly perhaps by many of them, but rising to a high degree in platina.
Dulong and Thenard have very philosophically extended our knowledge of the
property to its possession by all the metals, and by earths, glass, stones,
&c. (611.); and every idea of its being a known and recognised electric
action is in this way removed.

619. All the phenomena connected with this subject press upon my mind the
conviction that the effects in question are entirely incidental and of a
secondary nature; that they are dependent upon the _natural conditions_ of
gaseous elasticity, combined with the exertion of that attractive force
possessed by many bodies, especially those which are solid, in an eminent
degree, and probably belonging to all; by which they are drawn into
association more or less close, without at the same time undergoing
chemical combination, though often assuming the condition of adhesion; and
which occasionally leads, under very favourable circumstances, as in the
present instance, to the combination of bodies simultaneously subjected to
this attraction. I am prepared myself to admit (and probably many others
are of the same opinion), both with respect to the attraction of
aggregation and of chemical affinity, that the sphere of action of
particles extends beyond those other particles with which they are
immediately and evidently in union (523.), and in many cases produces
effects rising into considerable importance: and I think that this kind of
attraction is a determining cause of Doebereiner's effect, and of the many
others of a similar nature.

620. Bodies which become wetted by fluids with which they do not combine
chemically, or in which they do not dissolve, are simple and well-known
instances of this kind of attraction.

621. All those cases of bodies which being insoluble in water and not
combining with it are hygrometric, and condense its vapour around or upon
their surface, are stronger instances of the same power, and approach a
little nearer to the cases under investigation. If pulverized clay,
protoxide or peroxide of iron, oxide of manganese, charcoal, or even
metals, as spongy platina or precipitated silver, be put into an atmosphere
containing vapour of water, they soon become moist by virtue of an
attraction which is able to condense the vapour upon, although not to
combine it with, the substances; and i