PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 



51 



\i > — a method to which modern civilized nations would hardly 

 deem it advisable to resort. Most precepts for personal preser- 

 vation from lightning are of a negative character. Those, which 

 Franklin gave have ever been regarded as scientific and useful. 

 For persons who, during thunderstorms are in houses not provided 

 with lightning conductors, he recommends an avoidance of the 

 neighborhood of fire-places. Chimneys are often struck by light- 

 ning, the internal coating of soot serving to attract it, as also the 

 column of smoke, which rising in the air acts as a conductor for 

 the electric fluid. Since metals attract lightning, avoid also 

 metals, gildings and mirrors which are coated with mercury. 

 The les» the contact with the walls or the floor, the better. The 

 middle of the room is the best place unless a lamp or chandelier 

 be hanging from the ceiling. A hammock suspended by silken 

 cords in the middle of the room would be regarded a very safe 

 place. 



Among the ancients, it was generally believed that persons 

 lying in bed were safe from lightning. This notion still obtains 

 with many people. Facts however do not show it to be well 

 founded. If the whole body could be enveloped in feathers, they 

 might serve for protection ; but so long as the head or any part of 

 the body is in proximity to the bedstead, there is no immunity 

 from the stroke of lightning, since the human bod}' is a better 

 conductor then are feathers or the material of a mattress. 



Metals worn on the person attract lightning, and hence to an 

 extent, are sources of danger. When lightning fell upon the 

 prison in Swabia in 1819, of twenty prisoners together in a hall, 

 but one was struck, and he the condemned chief of a band of 

 robbers, was chained by the waist. Numerous examples have 

 proved that whenever persons are struck by lightning, it particu- 

 larly attacks the portions of metal worn by them. Wet clothing 

 may be fortunate in case of lightning stroke, but with dry clothing 

 the liability of the stroke is not so great. 



Out of doors, it is a sound precept to avoid a position in prox- 

 imity to tall trees. The ancients believed that certain trees are 

 never struck by lightning. The laurel was thought to be particu- 

 larly favored. The beech has been classed among trees which 

 lightning respects. " The Chinese consider the mulberry and the 

 peach tree as good preservatives against lightning." Observation 

 however, shows that no species of tree can be regarded as exempt 

 from liability to lightning stroke. 



