): 'the electrical phenomena indeed explain the effect of bodies at a greater or lesser distance, their attraction before union (that is, a behavior which is not yet chemical), as well as the fire(?) resulting from this union, but they yield no information regarding what causes the union of bodies which persists with so great a strength after the removal of the state of electrical polarization'; that is, the theory informs us that electricity is the cause of chemical behavior but gives us no information regarding what is chemical in the chemical process.