POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



277 



rangements made for systematic -work in 

 the laboratory, and a part of the class will 

 be allowed to join each day in the dredging 

 and collecting expeditions. Dr. Brooks will 

 exercise personal supervision of the work 

 of this class, and will give a course of lect- 

 ures on general zoology, but the students 

 will be under the more immediate guidance 

 of Dr. S. F. Clarke, who will lecture daily 

 on the structure and habits of marine ani- 

 mals. Beaufort, on account of its diver- 

 sified fauna, and of its mild and uniform 

 climate, is described as a desirable place 

 for study during the hot months of sum- 

 mer. 



Trees and Lightning. Professor Colla- 

 don, of Geneva, published the conclusion 

 several 3-ears ago that, when lightning 

 strikes a tree, it is received on the ends of 

 the branches, which, being excellent con- 

 ductors, lead it, without suffering disturb- 

 ance, down to the larger limbs. Thence it 

 descends to the main limbs and the trunk, 

 whose conducting power, intrinsically infe- 

 rior to that of the smaller and younger 

 shoots of the top, is insufficient to sustain 

 the concentrated force of the currents which 

 have united here from the thousand chan- 

 nels by which they have so far descended. 

 Here, then, generally appear the first marks 

 of the shock, not because the lightning has 

 struck the tree at that place, as might be 

 superficially supposed, but because the con- 

 ducting powers of the tree begin to fail at 

 this point- This view was satisfactorily 

 confirmed by the effect of the lightning 

 upon a poplar-tree, which was struck at Ge- 

 neva on the oth of May, 1880. The young, 

 tender leaves of the main topmost branch 

 of this tree and of the branches immediate- 

 ly below it were toi'n up into small frag- 

 ments, which strewed the ground below 

 them, as if they had undergone a violent 

 shock of air, such as would be produced by 

 an explosion of dynamite. Many trees may 

 be compared, in respect to their power to 

 conduct electricity, to structures of wood or 

 masonry, which are well furnished with con- 

 ductors on their upper part, but with which 

 no conducting connection with the ground 

 is given. If such a building were struck 

 with lightning, its upper part would not be 

 hurt, while its lower part would suffer badly. 



The danger of being struck by lightning, to 

 which persons standing under a tree are ex- 

 posed, is thus accounted for. The top of 

 the tree, bristling with conducting twigs, 

 attracts the lightning ; the current, meeting 

 with non-conducting obstacles at the trunk, 

 jumps from it to the surrounding bodies, 

 whether they be bushes or men and animals. 

 Of two persons, one standing under the tree, 

 the other sitting among the limbs at the 

 top, the latter would be in a vastly safer 

 position. Birds having nests in trees are 

 rarely struck by lightning, and their nests 

 are hardly ever damaged. Large trees 

 growing near a house will protect it from 

 lightning, provided there is no pond or well 

 or stream beyond the house to attract the 

 current across it. If the w-ater is on the 

 same side of the house as the tree, or the 

 tree is between it and the house, or has a 

 rod attached to it, the protection is almost 

 perfect. When a vineyard is struck by 

 lightning, the leaves over a large circuit 

 will, a few hours or days afterward, appear 

 discolored, showing that the electrical ac- 

 tion has taken place in a diffused manner, 

 and not in a concentrated attack. In such 

 cases hundreds or even thousands of vines 

 may be affected, showing palpably that it is 

 the property of lightning to manifest itself 

 upon the whole top of a tree or a plot of 

 vegetation. In his memoir on this subject, 

 M. CoUadon mentions a single stroke of 

 lightning which left its traces on more than 

 two thousand things. 



Progress of Cremation. Cremation is 

 growing in favor throughout Europe. The 

 first furnace for the purpose was erected 

 at Milan, in 18'75 ; the second, built at Gotha, 

 in 1878, has been recognized by the author- 

 ities of the city, so that there the choice 

 between burial and cremation is free to 

 every citizen. Several societies for the ad- 

 vancement of the rite have been formed, 

 some of them even in states where no prep- 

 arations have been made for performing it. 

 The International Hygienic Congress which 

 met at Milan in September, 1880, adopted a 

 resolution in favor of compelling the bodies 

 of all animals dying of contagious diseases 

 to be incinerated, and of the provision of 

 facilities for that purpose in every parish. 

 , It also appointed a special international 



