PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 453 



purpose of only academies of sciences. But there are in Germany 

 only three, at most four such academies, and they are far from 

 sufficient to assure general progress over all the wide fields of 

 science. A part of their function has thus fallen upon the uni- 

 versities, and they have performed it valiantly, sometimes glori- 

 ously. This is the reason why German university teachers de- 

 mand more time than is required for the teaching in itself. 



The universities have also an important function in the second 

 direction, as I have said, in the training of new investigators and 

 teachers. This is a very near duty, for only thus can that indis- 

 pensable constituent of the teaching body, the position of privat 

 docent, the nursery for future professors, be maintained and repro- 

 duced. Therefore, we should begin early to train independent 

 workers from among the students. Translated for The Popular 

 Science Monthly. 



PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 



BY ALEXANDER McADIE. 



DURING the year 1891 two hundred and five lives were lost 

 (that we know of) in the United States, east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, directly through the action of lightning. How many 

 were lost indirectly, and how many cases there were of shattered 

 health and more or less permanent injury, we can only surmise. 

 The financial loss due directly to lightning was certainly not 

 below one and a half million dollars. To get at something like a 

 commercial estimate of the damage done by lightning in thfc past 

 few years, in this country, I have made use of the Chronicle Fire 

 Tables for the six years 1885-1890, and find that some twenty-two 

 hundred and twenty-three fires, or 1*3 per cent of the whole num- 

 ber, were caused by lightning, and the total loss was $3,386,826, or 

 1'25 per cent of the whole amount lost by fire. During 1892 we 

 have a record of two hundred and ninety-two lives lost. The 

 damage may be estimated at as high a figure as in 1891. These 

 losses are the more appalling when we recall that the year is vir- 

 tually less than six months. Over ninety-five per cent of the 

 casualties due to lightning occur between the months of April 

 and September. It is therefore qutie pertinent at this time to dis- 

 cuss the question whether or not we are able to protect ourselves 

 from lightning. Some five years ago the question would have 

 been answered readily and with all sincerity, " Yes, a good elec- 

 trical connection with the earth a stout, continuous copper rod, 

 for example will suffice." To-day no such answer can pass un- 

 challenged, for reasons which we shall see. 



In 1888, after years of dispute, we had just settled down to the 



VOL. XLIII. 31 



