Phenomena and Causes of Had Storms. 247 



such hail-rods are protected from the ravages of hail-storms, 

 while other places in the midst of them, and all around them, 

 are laid waste by these destructive visitations, it would go very 

 far to prove that hail is produced by the agency of electri- 

 city. This point, therefore, requires to be considered with atten- 

 tion. 



It is now more than fifty years since it was first proposed by 

 men of science in France, to avert the calamities which that 

 kingdom sustains in a very peculiar degree from hail-storms, 

 by erecting conductors, with the view of drawing off the elec 

 tricity that was supposed to generate the storms. The land 

 proprietors, however, did not display the expected eagerness to 

 avail themselves of the proposed security, and a writer complains 

 that for thirty years afterwards, not a single landholder had put 

 the experiment in practice *. But as late as the year 1821 , the 

 Linnsean Society of Paris f revived the interest in this subject, 

 and caused numerous experiments to be made, which have in- 

 spired, it appears, much confidence in the efficacy of hail-rods. 

 In a late number of the Annals of that Society, the subject is 

 thus noticed. " The Paragrele, or hail-rod, has for several 

 years occasioned much inquiry on the continent, and has en- 

 gaged the particular attention of the society. In many districts, 

 which were formerly, year after year, devastated by hail, the 

 instrument has been adopted with complete success, while in 

 neighbouring districts, not protected by paragreles, the crops 

 have been damaged as usual ; and the society are receiving 

 from all quarters statements which fully confirm their opinion 

 of the utility of the invention. The society have made a report 

 to the Ministers of the Interior, recommending that measures be 

 adopted by the general government, for protecting the country 

 from hail ; and it is estimated, from the result of experiments 

 in numerous districts, that if paragreles were established through- 

 out the whole of France, it would occasion an annual savmg to 

 the revenue of fifty millions of francs $•" 



These statements are certainly favourable to the hypothesis 

 in question ; but since the experiments are in their infancy— 



• TUloch's Phil. Mag. vol. xxvi, p. 213. f Am. Jour. vol. x. p. 19fi. 



+ Am. Jour. voL xii, p. 29!i. 



