286 



SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. 



upon the season, and are greatest in the spring, when the plant is bathed 

 in sap. These experiences were confirmed by Bequerel in 1850, and he 

 concludes that the rank vegetation in some parts of the world must exercise 

 considerable influence on the electric phenomena of the atmosphere. M. 

 Buff has more recently made experiments in this direction, and he examined 

 plants and trees, and even mushrooms. M. de la Rive, after carefully 

 summing up the various theories, comes to the conclusion that it is to 

 chemical reactions that the traces of electricity are due. 



The subject of atmospherical electricity properly belongs to meteorology, 

 and under that heading we will treat of it more fully. But lightning is sex 

 identified with electricity, and being the most common form observable ta 



Fig. 286. Benjamin Franklin. 



all, we will say something about thunderstorms and the electric discharges 

 accompanying them. 



Before Franklin's ever-memorable experiment with his kite established 

 the identity of lightning and electricity, the resemblance between the two 

 discharges had been frequently noticed. The Etruscans pretended to bring 

 down lightning from heaven, and Tullus Hostilius, when experimenting or 

 performing certain "ceremonies," was killed by the electric discharge he 

 desired to attract. But after all, we cannot attribute any knowledge of 

 electric science to the ancients, although they were, of course, familiar with 

 electric phenomena. 



It is to Dr. Wall that testimony points as the first person who 

 remarked the analogy between the electric spark and lightning. This was 

 in 1708. Grey and other philosophers supported the theory, but could not 

 establish it. To Franklin, who in June 1752 actually brought down the 



