Attraction,
in natural philosophy, a force in virtue of which the material particles of all bodies tend necessarily to approach each other.
Capillary action, meaning the attraction excited by a hair-like tube on a liquid within it, is, properly speaking, a variety of adhesion.
In magnetism, the power excited by a magnet or loadstone of drawing and attaching iron to itself.
In electricity, the power possessed by an electrified body of drawing certain other bodies to itself.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.