GLOBE LIGHTNING. 209 



medium size, although it would be impossible of proof at this 

 writing. 



It would be interesting at this time to follow out the intel- 

 lectual differences between these three races which we have 

 described. The future social complexion of Europe is largely 

 dependent upon them. The problem is too complicated to treat 

 briefly. In a later paper, devoted expressly to modern social 

 problems, we may return to it again. Our physical analysis is 

 now complete. The next task is to trace the origin of nationalities 

 from the combination of these elements. We shall begin with 

 the French ; for this single nation is, alone in all Europe, com- 

 pounded of all three racial elements ; nay, more, we shall be able 

 to point to a still older population than any of these, living to-day 

 in France, with an unbroken ancestry reaching back to the pre- 

 historic stone age. 



GLOBE LIGHTNING. 



By M. HAGENAU. 



OCCASIONALLY in thunderstorms peculiar electrical appa- 

 ritions occur, similar in destructiveness to ordinary light- 

 ning, but by no means so transient. Their duration is measured, 

 not by thousandths of a second, but by whole seconds or even 

 minutes. They move so slowly that their progress can be accu- 

 rately followed by the eye. As they generally appear in the 

 form of glowing spheres, they are known as fireballs or globe 

 lightning. The first account of this peculiar form of lightning 

 was given by the celebrated English physicist, Robert Boyle, who 

 described a ball which suddenly appeared on July 34, 1681, on 

 the ship Albemarle. The sailors attacked it in vain with blows 

 and water, but it burned itself out, leaving behind a strong smell 

 of gunpowder. 



In Boyle's time ordinary lightning flashes were thought to 

 consist of inflamed gas, so that an occurrence like the above did 

 not appear particularly striking, but later investigators were 

 unable to make the fireball fit their knowledge and theory of 

 electricity, and declared it to be a myth. A layman stated that 

 such a ball appeared in his room during a storm and slowly made 

 its way to the chimney. The scientific people asserted that it was 

 an illusion of the senses, and that there were no such things as 

 fireballs. But the balls continued to appear, in some instances 

 being simultaneously seen by a number of trustworthy witnesses, 

 so that their existence had to be admitted. 



Let us notice a few well-attested recent cases : 



Dr. A. Wartmann has given the Physical Society of Geneva 



TOL. LI. 16 



