385 



Prof. Cresson described some remarkable electrical pbeno- 

 mena, observed by bim during tbe summer, sbowing clearly 

 tbe dispersive mood of ligbtning. 



In one instance, the lightning, after descending along the 

 exterior of a maple tree, without damage to the tree, passed 

 from the tree to a line of rails in an adjacent post-and-rail 

 fence, where it parted in two opposite directions, to the dis- 

 tance of nearly eighty feet in each direction, demolishing the 

 fence by bursting open the posts and splintering the rails : 

 fragments of the rails being thrown to the distance of sixty 

 feet or more. 



In the other case, the lightning was seen to strike a cherry 

 tree, standing about fifty feet from a line of telegraph wires, 

 tAYO in number, to which, from the tree, it leaped, and was 

 then seen to pass in opposite directions along the wires. In 

 one direction (eastward) it seems to have escaped wholly 

 by the posts, many of which were splintered and several of 

 them entirely demolished. Westwardly, the posts were left un- 

 injured, the charge keeping the wires to their termination 

 at a telegraph station at the City Gas Works, in the First 

 Ward, nearly four thousand feet distant, destroying some 

 of the instruments and stopping the clock at the precise 

 moment of the occurrence of the phenomenon. 



The Society was then adjourned. 



Stated Meeting, October 5, 1860. 



Present, nine members. 



Judge Sharswood, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



A letter from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin 

 was read, transmitting donations for the library. 



The following donations for the Library were received : — 



Cat. State Lib. Wisconsin. H. Rublee. Madison, 1860. Pamph. 

 8vo. — From the Society. 



VOL. VII. — 2 z 



