432 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Professor Lovering called attention to a former vote of the 

 Acadeiii}^ requesting the government to require postmasters 

 to collect statistics in regard to persons struck by lightning, 

 and presented the following report of a Committee appointed 

 by the Academy to take this matter into consideration : — 



'• The discoveries and inventions in electricity, since the time of 

 Franklin, have not added much to our knowledge of thunder and 

 lightning, or of the best means of protection against them. "While 

 science is modest, if not altogether silent in this matter, there is no 

 lack of loud talkers who trade upon the ignorance and fears of the 

 public. The claims of different patentees are so conflicting that a' 

 thoughtful man may well doubt what he should do, and come finally 

 to the conclusion that the safest course for him is to do nothing. 

 A faithful record of accidents to persons and property by lightning 

 (of which this large country would furnish numerous examples every 

 year) with a detailed account of the exposure in each case, either with 

 or without lightning rods, will put on trial old devices for protection, 

 and may suggest new ones. In Eui'ope, governments and academies 

 •have made it their duty to investigate this subject and to instruct and 

 guide the public. The signal service at AVashington, which has al- 

 ready done much good work for the community, and which has in 

 charge certain questions in meteorology, might be able to enlarge its 

 sphere of duties, and already possesses an organization well adapted to 

 obtaining the information, the usefulness and necessity of which have 

 already been indicated. Your Committee therefore recommend to the 

 Academy the adoption of the following vote, — to be communicated, 

 together with the explanatory remarks which have preceded, to the 

 Chief of the Signal Service at Washington : — 



" Voted, That the Chief of the Signal Service at Washington be 

 requested to use such means as may be at his command for collecting 

 and publishing full and accurate statistics in regard to accidents by 

 liehtniug in the United States. 



On recommendation of the Rumford Committee, it was 

 voted to charge to the income of the Rumford Fund the 

 papers in Vol. XIII. of the Proceedings of the Academy 

 numbered V., VIII., X., XL, XII., XIV., and XVII., and 



Professor Cooke made a report upon the funds for the 

 publication of the Proceedings, and moved an additional 



