cxli 



Mr. McLellan remarked that although lightning indulges in 

 many freaks hard to explain, yet extensive observations in sec- 

 tions that are subject to frequent and violent thunderstorms have 

 led to the conclusion that, when trees are struck, the electric fluid 

 almost invariably follows the grain of the wood. This appears 

 from the following facts, viz. : 



1. The track of lightning down the trunk of a tree growing on upland 

 shows a greater twist of the grain than in the case in trees of the same 

 same species growing in swamps. Sometimes the spiral completes the 

 circuit of the trunk in a space of twenty or thirty feet, and the same timber 

 when afterwards split into rails shows the same twist in the grain. 



2. Long and slender splinters are frequently thrown off with the bark 

 showing unbroken continuity of the wood-cells. 



Mr. Todd stated that he had recently found an additional iterh 

 to confirm him in the belief that forest trees have a strong influ- 

 ence in producing rain-fall. It was to the effect that the Italian 

 government is preparing to have all the bare mountains in the 

 country planted with trees, in order to protect the country in their 

 vicinity from sterility. 



Mr. Riley reiterated his belief that while the planting of trees, 

 and other means at man's command, might affect the rain-fall in 

 restricted localities, that of the entire country must remain the 

 same, as forests acted as distributors and not as sources of rain. 



Dr. Wislizenus concurred with Mr. Riley. We cannot increase 

 t-ie volume of rain-fall, but we can do much to equalize the dis- 

 tribution of it, as Marsh in his "Man in Nature" has very well 

 shown. 



Mr. S. S. Bassler was elected as an Associate Member, and 

 Mr. Amos Sawyer, Hillsboro, Ills., a Corresponding Member. 



'June I, 1874. 



Albert Todd, Vice President, in the chair. 



Twelve members present. 



The Corresponding Secretary laid the exchanges on the table,^ 

 and drew attention more especial!}- to the following : 



M. Paul Broca (Bull, de la Soc. d'Ar\thropologie de Paris, T. viii., No. 

 4, p. 572) gives an interesting account of certain artificially flattened skulls 

 of the ancient Cymri or Cimmerians (the macrocef hales of Herodotus) 



