ctricity, and of
chemistry, such as oil and water; which last may be as
numerous as the particular attractions which constitute
chemical affinities; and may both of them exist as
atmospheres round the individual particles of matter; see
Botanic Garden, Vol. I. additional note VII. on elementary
heat.]

[Footnote: _Attraction next_, l. 239. The power of attraction
may be divided into general attraction, which is called
gravity; and into particular attraction, which is termed
chemical affinity. As nothing can act where it does not
exist, the power of gravity must be conceived as extending
from the sun to the planets, occupying that immense space;
and may therefore be considered as an ethereal fluid, though
not cognizable by our senses like heat, light, and
electricity.

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise
occupy the spaces between the particles of matter which they
cause to approach each other. The power of gravity may
therefore be called the general attractive ether, and the
matter of heat may be called the general repulsive ether;
which constitute the two great agents in the changes of
inanimate matter.]

[Footnote: _And quick Contraction_, l. 245. The power of
contraction, which exists in organized bodies, and
distinguishes life from inanimation, appears to consist of an
ethereal fluid which resides in the brain and nerves of
living bodies, and is expended in the act of shortening their
fibres. The attractive and repulsive ethers require only the
vicinity of bodies for the exertion of their activity, but
the contractive ether requires at first the contact of a goad
or stimulus, which appears to draw it off from the
contracting fibre, and to excite the sensorial power of
irritation. These contractions of animal fibres are
afterwards excited or repeated by the sensorial powers of
sensation, volition, or association, as explained at large in
Zoonomia, Vol. I.

There seems nothing more wonderful in the ether of
contraction producing the shortening of a fibre, than in the
ether of attraction causing two bodies to approach each
other. The for