A Treatise on Electricity / Wherein its various phænomena are accounted for, and the cause of the attraction and gravitation of solids, assigned. To which is added, a short account, how the electrical effluvia act upon the animal frame, and in what disorders the same may probably be applied with success, and in what not.

The author proposes that electrical phenomena arise from air acted upon by a rubbed glass globe and argues that air, light, and fire are different modifications of a common substance. He marshals experiments and observations—frictional sparks, luminous effects in storms and on disturbed water, and demonstrations by contemporary investigators—to support conversion between air, light, and fire. The essay challenges prevailing notions of attraction and gravitation and offers alternative explanations for solidity and the tendency of bodies to move toward the earth. It concludes by applying the electrical theory to physiology, considering how electrical effluvia interact with the animal frame and which disorders might plausibly benefit from such interventions.