October 



II, I! 



SCIENCE. 



257 



— The London correspondent of The New York Times says, 

 " The New Review has been such a remarkable success that it will 

 henceforth contain ten additional pages. Its freshness, ability, and 

 scope have made even the Fortnightly and the Contemporary %e^tvc\ 

 dull by comparison, and this month in the table of contents it 

 easily leads all its older and costlier rivals. A little two-page paper 

 by Cardinal Manning on the strike is one of the wisest and most 

 valuable deliverances on the subject I have ever seen, and John 

 Burns's longer article is extremely forcible." 



— In the Ne-w England Magazine for October many of the ar- 

 ticles are devoted to subjects relating to education. Mr. Albert P. 

 Marble, the retiring president of the National Educational Asso- 

 ciation, contributes an article on the history and prospects of the 

 association ; W. A. Mowry, the editor of Education, writes on Dr. 

 Harris and the Bureau of Education ; there is a brief article on his- 

 tory, by A. E. Winship, the editor of the New England Journal 

 of Education ; and there is a long and fully illustrated article on 

 the educational institutions of Nashville. Nashville receives further 

 notice in a general article on the history and new life of the city, by 

 Hon. A. S. Colyar. This article also is illustrated, and is timely, as 

 the recent meeting of the National Educational Association in tliis 

 " Athens of the South " has drawn to it the attention of thousands 

 of the teachers of the country. It is the first of a series of articles, 

 in which the New England Magazine proposes to present the 

 enterprising cities of the New South to Northern readers. Dr. 

 Holmes, whose eightieth birthday has just been celebrated, receives 

 attention in this number of the magazine. The frontispiece is a 

 portrait of Dr. Holmes, from a recent photograph. There is an 

 illustrated article, " Dr. Holmes at Fourscore," by George Willis 

 Cooke ; an article on " Dr. Holmes's Pilgrim Poems ; " and inter- 

 esting facts about the poet among the editorial notes. Professor 

 Hosmer's story, " The Haunted Bell," is continued, and there are 

 some short stories, one by Mrs. Celia P. Woolley, the author of 

 " Love and Theology." Mr. Mead's study of the question, " Did 

 John Hampden come to New England ? " is finished, the whole 

 evidence on this puzzling point being laid on the table. Another 

 historical article is by Professor Charles H. Levermore, " Pilgrim 

 and Knickerbocker in the Connecticut Valley." Mr. Hale has a 

 gossipy paper entitled " Tarry at Home Travel," not easy to de- 

 scribe, but delightful to read. There is a brief article on John 

 Boyle O'Reilly ; and a long and thorough one by William Clarke 

 of London on Parnell, which will attract much attention. It is ac- 

 companied by a portrait of Parnell, from a recent photograph. 

 The articles on O'Reilly and Dr. Harris also have portraits. 



— Messrs. Houghton, Mififlin, & Co. have published a small 

 volume by Mary E. Burt, an Illinois teacher, entitled " Literary 

 Landmarks." The authoress is impressed with the importance of 

 giving children a taste for better reading than much that they now 

 indulge in, and more knowledge of the literary history of the world. 

 She lays the most stress on works of imagination, though she does 

 not neglect scientific and historical books, and others that convey 

 information. She gives some account of her experience in teach- 

 ing the history of literature by means of specimen works, — a study 

 which she has found more interesting to school-children than is 

 commonly supposed. The book contains some charts to illustrate 

 the literary history of the world, one of which is quite elaborate, 

 and would, we should think, be useful to other teachers. Miss 

 Burt is perhaps a Httle too positive in expressing her views, and 

 the list of books that she recommends for young people is too full 

 for ordinary use ; but we welcome her attempt and all attempts 

 to raise the standard of juvenile reading. 



— " Evolution of Morals," by Lewis G. Janes, and " Proofs of 

 Evolution," by Nelson C. Parshall, are the contents of Nos. 11 and 

 12 of the Modern Science Essayist. 



from these strokes to unprotected houses. I have heard intelligent 

 men say that a lightning-rod attracted the lightning, and was more 

 dangerous than none. This is unquestionably an entirely errone- 

 ous supposition, in case the lightning-rod has a good ground, for 

 its whole duty is to cause electricity of increased tension to pass off 

 silently and insensibly, rather than to gain a sufficient potential to 

 give a disruptive discharge. The following is a brief account of a 

 few strokes that have come to my attention, in which damage re- 

 sulted, in the past four years. 



On Aug. 23, 1885, a church with a high steeple, and protected 

 by an iron lightning-rod, was struck in a severe storm. The stroke 

 stopped the tower clock, but without serious injury. The electri- 

 city came down the rod to within fifteen feet of the ground, when 

 it dashed across twenty feet of air space, to a faucet connected 

 with the city water-pipes, and disappeared without further injury. 

 It slightly dazed a man who was within a few feet of the line from 

 the rod to the faucet. A singular point is, th3t this same church 

 was struck in precisely the same way several years before ; and on 

 that occasion, as the stroke entered the water-pipe, it broke the 

 marble front of the sink, and threw it on the floor. It is very plain 

 that the whole difficulty in this case was an insufficient ground. 

 After the last catastrophe the rod was changed to copper, but it is 

 plain that the only method of avoiding danger is by improving the 

 ground. 



In this same storm, lightning struck a house about three- 

 quarters of a mile from the church. This house had no rod. The 

 main part had a hip roof, and was shingled ; while a lower south- 

 ern extension had a tin roof, from the south-west corner of which 

 a tin eaves-spout ran down to about ten inches above the earth. 

 The lightning struck the south-west corner of the extension, and 

 divided, a part going down to the end of the spout, and then into 

 the house, where it knocked ofl the plastering. The other part 

 crossed to the north-east corner, passed down between the weather- 

 boarding and plastering, and finally dug a furrow in the ground, 

 and disappeared in a pool of water about fifteen feet from the 

 house. The latter part of the stroke drove off, as by an explosion, 

 the plastering on the inside and the weather-boarding on the out- 

 side. There was no trace of scorching on the boards. A woman 

 and her two sons in the house were dazed and partly stunned. 



A year or two later a modern house was struck on one of the 

 principal avenues of the city. It had no lightning-rod ; but, from 

 a tower having a slate roof, a gilded ornament projected to about 

 three feet. The whole house excepting this tower was roofed with 

 tin. The stroke passed down the inside of the tower, knocking off 

 the plastering, stunning one of the inmates, and doing other slight 

 damage. This house has had the same ornament erected, and no 

 rod put in place to protect from a similar stroke. 



The last stroke that has been called to my attention occurred 

 this summer. A gilded wooden cross about four feet in height, 

 on the tower of a beautiful stone church which had no protection 

 from lightning, was struck. Various ornaments on the tower were 

 shattered, and the tower itself was damaged. The whole damage 

 was two hundred or three hundred dollars. The gilded cross has 

 again been erected without a lightning-rod to invite another visita- 

 tion by Providence. 



It seems to me the architects of modern buildings are largely 

 responsible for this state of affairs. It is probable that in a large city 

 with numerous tin roofs the danger from lightning on ordinary 

 roofs is very slight ; but certainly in isolated spots, and all pro- 

 jecting metallic or gilded points, there is a constant hazard from 

 lightning unless protected by a rod well grounded. 



H. A. Hazen. 



WashiDgton, D.C., Oct. 7. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Lightning-Strokes. 



The attempt of Science to obtain information regarding light- 

 ning-strokes and their damage is very praiseworthy, and it is to be 

 hoped that it will result in a clearer understanding of the danger 



A Queer Maple-Tree. 



A HARD-MAPLE tree in the yard of S. G. Scott at Plainwell, Mich., 

 is an object of great curiosity. It has been shedding its foliage 

 through September, but new leaves are again appearing, and after 

 the fall frosts the tree agam drops its leaves. This it has done 

 regularly for several seasons. It differs only in respect of shedding 

 its foliage twice a year, from other maples standing within a few 

 feet of it. M. G. Manting. 



Holland, Mich., Oct. 4. 



