TOunfret anfr Xtgbtntna 121 



IV 



To return to the subject of thunderstorms, the dis- 

 tressing fatalities on Wandsworth Common that 

 terrible Sunday morning produced a flood of advice 

 as to how to act when overtaken in the open by an 

 electric storm. One writer who suggested that it 

 would be on the whole best to " sit or lie down in an 

 open spot," wished no doubt to convey a warning 

 against hurrying through the storm. And very 

 properly so, for by walking rapidly or running, a 

 disturbance of the air is created, which in itself tends 

 to attract the lightning. The draught which such a 

 motion causes is just what should be avoided, for we 

 know how readily lightning will enter an open door or 

 an open window. A few years ago, in a northern city, 

 a man told me that during a very violent thunder- 

 storm all the windows of his club were thrown wide 

 open. I asked him if that was to let in the lightning. 

 " No, not exactly ; rather to let it out again if it 

 did get in," he replied. The lightning accepted the 

 invitation to enter the club, and though it magnani- 

 mously spared the members, it pierced a thick wall 

 and smashed the back of a large safe in an adjoining 

 room. To this day the members of that club are 

 puzzled to know how the lightning knew the safe was 

 there. 



On March 8th, 1915, I received from Prof. Chas. 

 Clifford Conroy, of Los Angeles, California, a com- 

 munication so readable and informative as to make, 

 I hope, an apology unnecessary for my giving it in 



