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THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMER. 



the natural instincts and appetites of man. 

 Either an eXLlusively vegetable or animal 

 diet is capable oi' sustaining lil"<-', but tlie most 

 porA^ot d(!Volopment, physical and intellec- 

 tual, ha. 5 already exi.sted uhore sustenance 

 has been dci Jved froiii both soiu'ces. 



It h hardly possildc to name anything 

 belonirinLi- to tlio animal or vc'iitablc kinti- 

 dom, not absolutely poisonous, -which has at 

 «omc t i luo not been oaten; Jior can any animal bo 

 named the use of which as food, has not at 

 souk; time, by some national rt'ligiou or habit 

 been prohibited. What !.'• one man's meat is 

 another's poi.^iwi. In nothing five the incon- 

 sistencies of our race so strikingly cxhibitL'd 

 as in nutinual ;'nd individual habit?! mid pre- 

 judices respecting food. 



Shell iish were fctrictly forbidden to the 

 Jews, y/o arc somcvrhat particular in our 

 choice. The lobfcteris dccidcdlyal'avoritc — 

 so exten.'^ively er'ten tliat iis hshery has be- 

 come an important branch oi industry to the 

 ^'tate. But the lobster is the .^cavciigc.r of 

 the dcas, and in itself i.^ as unsightly ami re- 

 pidsivc as nmscies, cockles, iioriwinklcs, lim- 

 pets, wilks and si;ails, con:uinu'd by other 

 nations. Nor are v.'o agrcnl a.s to all parts 

 of the lobstcrr. To many, the soft, green 

 fat is the dioicost portion, whdc others lose 

 their appetite in di.sgust at the sight of it. 

 The oyst<.'r Avas esteemed as a delicacy b}' the 

 Komans, :;s it has been, iu general, since, by 

 all2">eoplo wlio could obtain it, posst'.ssing more 

 than auy thing else the character oi" a holiday 

 food. But surely it rc(]uircs considerable 

 courage to .nvalln-\v for the first time the slimy 

 lump (.f inert nialtor; a;; inueh, if we could 

 hay aside all habit aiid a.-^soeiatious, as to eat 

 gruss-hopiiers, lizards and locusts, esteemed 

 by otiier nations. 'J'hc crawling, leggy, spi- 

 der-like red cfal) that iidiabits the oj^ster, id 

 a choice morsel with many of us, bat the de- 

 cided aversion oi" others. 



The tuitle is ueolared by aldermanic c\a- 

 cures to be th.e '-sovereign of Sfivoriness — a 

 starved one it is said, '-being infinitely better 

 than a fatted animal of any other species." 

 8ome among us, who fancy themselves good 

 livers, haAc of l;itc discovered that the snap- 

 ping species (if our swamps and mud holes, 

 though not <juile equal to the green turtle 

 and the terrapin, is ye-t a rich delieacy. 



The wealthy Chinese iudulge immoderate- 

 ly in refinements olcookeiy and the pleasures 

 of the table — their nio.st esteemed <lelicacies 

 are shark'.-* fins, bird's nc.=5t soups, little run- 

 ning cnd)S that they have to ch;i.-<e over the 

 table, cold relishes of salted earth-worms, 

 moths and gridis, and a variety of soup«, sea- 

 soned with tilthy compounds of a strong and 

 villainou.!i snuli. Dogs, cats and rats, are 

 also with them In high esteem as food. But 

 we must bear in mind that Kane and his men 

 I'ouud rats a mo;-t agi'ceable and dearly prized 

 luxurj^ and wc have . other high American 

 authority for eating dog. 



Blood was forbidden to the Jews, and spe- 

 cial pains required to abstract it from the 

 meat. "Eoa.-!t beef, very rare, and blood 

 graVy," is a frequent order for dinner at our 

 hotels. Hog's blood is a principal ingredient 

 in certain foveigu sausages, called, sometimes, 

 black puddings, and imported as a luxury 

 into this country. Guntinn, a highly prized 

 Iloman delicacy, Avas a pickle of lish's blood 

 aud gills. The remotest parts of the then 



known world were visited, and air, earth and 

 ocean ransacked to furnish the complicated 

 delicacies of a Boman supper. A large part 

 of these delicacies would be repulsive to us — ^ 

 yet an old law forbade them to eat poultry. 

 Some people refused the duck and goose, to 

 feed on birds of prey. Sugar, generally 

 tempting to children, is refused by the youtig 

 Esquimaux with disgust, but he will gorge 

 himself on whale bladder and train oil. The 

 Zetlanders and some other fish eating tribes, 

 will not eat their fish when fresh, but keep 

 till, what others would consider a most intol- 

 erable stench, they a most agreeable odor, 

 pruclaim--^ them to be sutficiently tender and 

 putrid. A.^safoctida is a highly esteemed 

 condiment among some nations of the East; 

 l"ood highly impregnated witli it being regard- 

 ed as fit for the gods. Our government has 

 just introduced this plant into this country, 

 not however, it is to be hoped with any view 

 of bringing it into general use as a seasoning. 

 Boast elephants, — probably not often a bar- 

 bacue, — and lion and tiger steaks afford the 

 favorite repast to the successful African hun- 

 ter, while theSouth American Indian regards 

 a boiled monkey as the most tempting of all 

 dishes. 



~—— 



New Xiiglitniug Boda. 



We have been shown a new style of lightning 

 loiy made from sheet copper, rolled into circu- 

 lar form, in such manner as to preseot a greatly 

 increased surface to the tluid, and thus conduct 

 it to the ground with greater speed and safety 

 than the rod now in ordinary use. In refer- 

 ence to the utility of lightning rods in general, 



we find tlic following remarks in the patent 

 offiec report for 1854: 



"If there be one time more than another," 

 Hiiy.*' a late writer on electricity, "in which 

 mun feels that he is entirely in the bauds of 

 One mightier than himself, in which all his 

 persoEai pride sinks in the conviction of his 

 utter helplessness, it iu when the forked bolts of 

 heaven glare ubout Inm with frightful bright- 

 ness, and the dread artillery of the skies stuns 

 him with its deafening peals, and shakes the 

 very earth on wh ch he treads. Then, I »ay, it 

 is that his conscience tells him how entirely 

 dependent he is; and how, in a moment, the 

 next fitsh might be to him the instrument of 

 death, without liuving the slightest power to 

 arrest his fate. In respect to other great and 

 irrcsistable powers of nature, man, in someeort 

 seeks thcra out — the lightning's flash seeks out 

 him. It is true, he may go to shores where 

 thunder-storms are less violent, or to others 

 where the^r are much more violent than in his 

 own land; but, regarding it generally, light- 

 ning is no respecter of time nor place ; it was 

 as much known to the ancients as to ourselves ; 

 it comes to us, .so to npeak, in season and out 

 of season ; its geographical distribution is less 

 restricted than that of any other of nature's 

 great phenomena — tempests, perhaps, except- 

 ed." 



With this startling admonition before him, 

 let any one of the readers of these observations 

 pause for a moment and count the number of 

 lightning rods in his own neighborhood. Does 

 he hesitate? He thinks there may be one on 

 the village spire, and perhaps another on yon 

 tall chimney ; but where else, ho knows not. — 

 Now, ho is led to ask what is the cause of this 

 apparent neglect ? Why this consummate au- 

 dacity in trifling with the eternal laws of na- 

 ture by erecting monuments and inviting down 

 the fire of heaven, and providing no means of 

 conducting it safely awav ? The leading rea- 

 sons for this are, first, the comparatively few 



accidents by lightning; second, the very recent 

 adoption of lightning protocols ; third, the 

 want of confidence in the efficacy of the latter ; 

 and, fourth, their coat. 



Although the extreme magnitude of accidents 

 by lightning can not bo otherwise than recog- 

 nized by all, and the almost certainty ot some 

 one or more buildings being the marked vic- 

 tims at every season, yet each man builds with 

 the chance of bis edifice not being the fatal 

 one. Amongst so many, the chances are so 

 much in his favor that he will run the risk ; or 

 else he comes to the still more unphilosophical 

 conclusion that, as storm after storm has left 

 him unncathed, so will he forever be safe. 



With regard to the comparatively recent dis- 

 covery of means of averting the effects of light- 

 ning, it will be remembered that it was not 

 until the month of June, 1752, that mankind 

 knew what lightning really was. Then it was 

 that Dr. Franklin first drew down lightning 

 from the elouds by means of a kite, and proved 

 its entire identity with electricity, which dis- 

 covery led him to the construction of lightning 

 conductors. But before treating of these, per- 

 haps it may be interesting to give some of the 

 precautions adopted by the ancients, in order to 

 protect themselves against this "eternal fire." 

 According to Herodotus, the Thracians, in time 

 of ligbtnmg, were in the habit of shooting 

 arrows against the sky, to repel it from the 

 earth. Augustus used to retire into a cave 

 during thunder storms, on the strength of an 

 opinion then prevalent, that lightning never 

 penetrated into the ground more than five feet 

 deep. The emperors of Japan, it is said, pos- 

 sessed a refinement on this mode, by building 

 reservoirci above the caves, into wbicn they 

 retired, and kept them constantly filled with 

 water, in order, as tboy thought, to put out the 

 fire of the lightning. Augustus, who appears 

 to have been terribly alarmed at this element, 

 used also, to wear a seal skin cloak during 

 storms, on account of its assumed protecting 

 efficacy. The Romans used to build seal skin 

 tents, into which the timid retired ; and the 

 shepherds of Cevennes, even at the present day, 

 wear hat bands of serpent skins for the same 

 purpose. Tiberius wore a chaplet of laurel 

 whenever he dreaded danger from a storm, with 

 a belief that lightning never touched that 

 foliage. And it is a well known fact, Ameri- 

 can Indians, whenever the sky wears the ap- 

 pearance of a thunder storm, quit their pursuits 

 and take refuge under the nearest beech, with 

 the full assurance that the electric bolts never 

 scathe that tree. 



If the ancients were thus industrious to use 

 what, in their ignorance, they thought to be the 

 means of safety against an agent, the nature 

 of which they knew little or nothing, tind the 

 action of which they knew still less, how much 

 more does it seems to bo the duty of the present 

 generation, who both understand it and the 

 means of averting its effects, to avail themselves 

 of the advantages of their knowledge, and em- 

 ploy the remedies they have at their command? 

 Not a year pa-sees without numerous cases of 

 buildings cases of buildings be struck by light 

 ning for want of proper proper protection, par- 

 ticularly barns, which, in consequence of the 

 humid gases ascending from the newly gathered 

 crops, are peculiarly liable to this injury. The 

 necessity and the value of lightning rods are 

 obvious, and need no further comment. 



With regard to the conducting materials em- 

 ployed in their construction, metal is undoubt- 

 edly the best, and the choice would seem to lie 

 between copper and iron. M. Pouillet makes 

 the conducting power of copper from 5^ to 6J 

 times that of iron ; Dr. Priest.y makes it 5 

 times as much ; and Professor Faraday 6 2 5 

 times us much; so that, after having deter- 

 mined the sectional area of an efficient copper 

 rod, an iron one of about six times that area 

 will poBsosB the same conducting power. Iron, 

 however, will not make durable and efficient 



