124 Means of Protection against Lightning. 



the crews do not suffer less than the masts, the cordage, and the 

 hulks of ships. Thus there were tzvo men killed, and twenty- 

 two wounded by the thunderbolt, which, in the year 1799, struck 

 the Cambrian at Plymouth ; under the same circumstances, the 

 Sidtan, at Mahon, lost^z;^ men killed on the spot, two thrown 

 into the sea and drowned, and three more, severely burned ; nine 

 men perished on board the Repulse^ by the flash which struck 

 that vessel in the Bay of Rosas in 1809 ; and there were three 

 seamen killed, and Jive wounded on board the Austrian frigate 

 Leipsig, when she was struck on the coast of Cephalonia. 

 . The facts, however, which I have already reported, ought to 

 be sufficient. They have been cited without exaggeration, and 

 without concealment. Every one, therefore, may appreciate at 

 its true value the importance of the various methods which have 

 been proposed for preservation against lightning. It is now 

 time, then, to submit these to serious consideration. 



ON THE MEANS OF PROTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING. 



I shall, I trust, be pardoned if I here briefly enumerate cer- 

 tain alleged means of preservation which, examined in the pre- 

 sent day with the light which the progress of science has sup- 

 plied, may appear somewhat absurd. At all events, it ought 

 not to be forgotten that the study of the aberrations of the 

 human mind ought not to be separated from that of true disco- 

 veries, for the greatest errors may probably still boast a host of 

 partisans. 



On the means which Mankind have employed for personal protection 

 against Lightning. 



Grecian literature has completely initiated us into the ideas 

 of the ancient philosophers regarding the causeof thunder; whilst 

 we find in their works only the most summary and imperfect 

 notices regarding two or three methods had recourse to for pre- 

 servation against its effects. Herodotus, in his 4th Book and 

 94th chapter, mentions " that the Thracians are in the habit 

 when it lightens or thunders, to shoot their arrows into the 

 sk^ to threaten it^ " To threaten it,''"' says the Greek au- 

 thor, a phrase worthy of remark ! It is by no means ques- 

 tioned, in the passage, that the arrow possessed a power, 



