270 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No 432 



fact that lightning never stoikes twice in the same place. 

 They say that in naval combats the safest place to put your 

 head is through the hole that the cannon-hall has just come 

 through ; and if it did strike more than once the rods could 

 he arranged on the principle of the multiple fuse, and a new 

 one plugged in as fast as they dissipated. 



Mr. Wolcott : — Mr. Birdsall has been facetious on this 

 point, and I will try to be so, too. I have heard it stated 

 that one reason why lightning does not strike in the same 

 place twice is that the place is generally gone when the 

 lightning has struck once. I certainly have read of several 

 cases where the conductor has conducted several discharges 

 to earth in the same storm. Now, with regard to, gold-leaf 

 discharge. That this charge was smaller, of course, may be 

 true. But the fact that the discharge in each of these cases 

 is just about suited to the size of the conductors would seem 

 to show that there was some coincidence about the matter. 

 If a dissipated conductor always stops the damage, or very 

 nearly always, there is something more than coincidence 

 about it. It seems to me that such an instance as that could 

 not be more than a mere coincidence — that a discharge which 

 was capable of doing considerable damage to the building 

 where the conductor was not dissipated, should be all used 

 up by dissipating a very small amount of metal, is not proba- 

 ble. 



The President: — I will call the attention of the Institute to 

 the fact that our usual time of adjournment has very long 

 passed. 



Mr. Hodges: — Ships have been struck a number of times 

 in the same storm. If you can cite speciBc cases against me, 

 all right. I have found, so far as I know, that a dissipatable 

 conductor protects. Why, is another question that does not 

 concern us. Why that gold-leaf protected we do not care. It 

 did protect. There is no arguing against its being reasonable, 

 that will set aside the fact. I thought over the matter, and 

 have some theoretical considerations to show why it does 

 protect, but those are not essential. 



This is all I want to give at the present time. But I be- 

 lieve there is one other way of furnishing protection against 

 lightning which has been ignored for a number of years. 

 The facts have been staring us in the face. I think about 

 the same time that Harris introduced his system of lightning- 

 rods there was a modification made in the rigging of ships 

 which has tended to mitigate the disastrous effects of light- 

 ning. The facts were well known long before Harris came 

 into existence; but they were so thoroughly out of tune with 

 all the science of that day that they were simply ignored ; so 

 that, in fact, in the report of the lightning-rod conference, 

 there is only the title of one paper bearing on the subject. 

 To find that paper I hunted through the Astor Library, and 

 put one of their expert searchers to work there; and it was 

 evidently considered of so little importance, that it had not 

 been copied in any periodical. By going back further and 

 further in the "Philosophical Transactions," I found the same 

 facts reported of a most positive character, and I think they 

 have a bearing on this apparent immunity of ships when 

 they are supplied with good conductors. I am inclined to 

 think that it is not the Harris conductor that has been doing 

 good service entirely, but it is something else. But all that 

 I would have said this evening, if it had not been necessary 

 to present a paper of some length, was that a dissipatable 

 conductoi* protects. 



Mr. James Hamblet: — I understand the gentleman to say 

 that a dissipatable conductor protects. I have in mind a 

 very large building situated at the top of a hill, in a very 



exposed position. That building is constructed with a metal 

 roof, entirely over the building, but having no lightning- 

 rods. It has large iron pipes, six inches in diameter, to 

 conduct water through the building down to the ground. 

 That building has never been injured by lightning at all, 

 hut frequently trees around it on the hill have been de- 

 stroyed by lightning. The lightning conductors of the build- 

 ing, which are these same iron pipes I have mentioned, have 

 not been dissipated. 



THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



The location of this biological laboratory, at the head of Cold 

 Spring harbor. Long Island, is one of the most favorable on the 

 coast. The country around affords excellent hunting ground 

 for every form of animal and vegetable life common to the climate. 

 Just above the laboratory is a series of three fresh-water ponds, 

 each fertile in its own peculiar forms of fresh-water life, and 

 through which flows the water of Cold Spring Creek. Just below 

 the laboratory is the harbor of Cold Spring, divided by a sandy 

 neck ioto an inner and an outer basin. The inner basin is par- 

 ticularly rich in marine life, and the channel between the -inner 

 and outer basins has a vai'ied and vigorous growth of algse, inol- 

 lusks, and eohinoderms. The outer basin has rocky projections, 

 shallow flats, banks and eel grass, sheltered pools, oyster-beds, and 

 other conditions favorable for collection and study. The outer 

 basin opens into Long Island Sound, whose coast is varied in char- 

 acter for twenty miles in either direction. 



The main laboratory occupies the first floor of the New York 

 State Fish Commission building, and is a room thirty-six feet wide 

 and sixty-five feet long, provided with ample light from every 

 side. It is furnished with laboratory tables, aquaria, hatching- 

 troughs, glassware, and all the apparatus and appliances required 

 for general biological work. Into tlie laboratory is conveyed a 

 bountiful supply of the water of the Cold Springs for use in the 

 aquaria and troughs. This water is as pure as a crystal, has the 

 same low temperature throughout the year, and is the water used 

 so successfully by the New York State Fish Commission in hatch- 

 ing and growing salmon, trout, and other food fishes. The labora- 

 tory is also supplied with an abundance of salt water, which is 

 pumped up from the harbor into a brick reservoir, from which it 

 runs to the laboratory. 



The station is provided with three small row-boats and a naphtha 

 launch, together with nets, trawls, and dredges, for use in collect- 

 ing and dredging. Near the main laboratory is a photographic 

 room, with a dark room and work room adjoining. Each student 

 is provided with dissecting instruments, chemicals, and glassware, 

 to be used in the dissection, preparation, and study of tissues. 

 Microscopes will be provided for those students who cannot pro- 

 vide themselves with instruments. 



The following general course is open to each student, and is. 

 under the direction of Professor Conn. It will consist primarily 

 of laboratory study of specimens illustrating the types of animal 

 life. The practical work will be accompanied by lectures giving 

 an outline of systematic zoology, for the purpose of showing the 

 relations of the forms studied to other animals. The lectures will 

 also touch upon various matters of general biological interest. The 

 types studied in course will be as follows : Protozoa, — study of 

 microscopic forms, including directions in the use of the micro- 

 scope; 1. Ccelenferata, — hydroids, including the study of jelly 

 fishes and the development of hydroids ; 3. Echinodermata, — ■ the 

 star-fish; 3. Bryozoa, — study of an adult Bryozoan; 4. Mollusca, — 

 the clam, the snail, development of the oyster or some other type^ 

 5. Crustacea, — the crab, with a study of its development; 6. In- 

 secta, — the grasshopper; 7. Vertebrata, — dissection of the fish ^ 

 dissection of the frog. 



Accompanying this course of laboratory work and lectures will 

 be given instruction in methods of mounting objects and in the 

 preparation of microscopic sections. Opportunity will also be 

 given for collecting and surface skimming. 



A special feature of the laboratory this season will be an ex- 

 tended course in the methods of bacteriological research. The 



