4 Phenomena and Causes of Hail Storms. 



alleged to be afforded to vineyards in France, and the neighboring 

 countries, by erecting among them long pointed poles, or hailrods, 

 (paragreles,) as they are called. Could the fact be fairly established 

 that places furnished with such hail rods are protected from the rava- 

 ges of hail-storms, while other places in the midst of them, and all 

 around them, are laid waste by these destructive visitations, it would 

 go very far to prove that hail is produced by the agency of electrici- 

 ty. This point therefore requires to be considered with attention. 



It is now more than 50 years since it was first proposed by men 

 of science in France, to avert the calamities which that kingdom 

 sustains in a very peculiar degree, from hail-storms, by erecting con- 

 ductors, with the view of drawing off the electricity that was suppos- 

 ed to generate the storms. The land proprietors, however, did not 

 display the expected eagerness to avail themselves of the proposed 

 security, and a writer complains that for thirty years afterwards, not 

 a single landholder had put the experiment in practice.* But as 

 late as the year 1821, the Linnsean Society of Parisf revived 

 the interest in this subject, and caused numerous experiments to be 

 made, which have inspired, it appears, much confidence in the effi- 

 cacy of hail rods. In a late number of the Annals of that Society, 

 the subject is thus noticed. "The Paragrele, or hail rod, has for 

 several years occasioned much inquiry on the continent, and has en- 

 gaged the particular attention of the society. In many districts, 

 which were formerly, year after year, devastated by hail, the instru- 

 ment has been adopted with complete success, while in neighboring 

 districts, not protected by paragreles, the crops have been damaged 

 as usual ; and the Society are receiving from all quarters statements 

 which fully confirm their opinion of the utility of the invention. The 

 Society have made a report to the ministers of the interior, recom- 

 mending that measures be adopted by the general government, for 

 protecting the country from hail ; and it is estimated, from the re- 

 sult of experiments in numerous districts, that if paragreles were es- 

 tablished throughout the whole of France, it would occasion an an- 

 nual saving to the revenue of fifty millions of francs. "J 



These statements are certainly favorable to the hypothesis in ques- 

 tion ; but since the experiments are in their infancy — since hail storms 

 are often of very limited extent, and, of places very near to each other, 



* Tilloch's Phil. Mag. Vol. XXVI, p. 213. t Am. Jour. Vol. X, p. 196, 



t Am. Jour. Vol. XII, p. 298. 



