A TALK ABOUT LIGHTNING. 33 
latter, but they are less likely to be than when standing alone in the midst of a 
level plain. Safety is also found in deep narrow valleys or ravines. Lightning 
rarely reaches to the bottom of such places, but is scattered against their sides. 
The wearing of silk is said to be a safeguard against lightning, and the case of the 
church at Chateauneny les Moutiers in the Lower Alps has been cited to confirm 
this view. The church was struck during divine service on the 11th of July, 
1819. Nine persons were killed outright, and eighty-two wounded. Two of the 
three officiating priests were injured, while the third, who wore a silken robe, 
escaped. One more fact is worth noticing in this connection. Whenever any 
number of men or animals standing in line are struck by lightning, the individuals 
at the ends of the line always suffer the most severely, Many examples of this 
are on record, but one will suffice for us. Thirty-two horses standing in line in 
their stalls were once struck by lightning, and thirty of them were knocked down. 
But only two were killed, and they formed the extremities of the line. 
Although at first sight lightning seems to act so capriciously, leaping from 
point to point in the most irregular manner, and playing tricks more freakish 
than those of Puck, it yet moves in accordance with rigid, definite laws. Certain 
substances are better conductors of electricity than others, and even the same 
substance varies in its conducting power according to conditions. Differences of 
temperature, of internal structure, of form, and of surroundings, will cause two 
samples of copper or iron to conduct electricity very differently. And the light- 
ning in its course, fickle and irresponsible as it seems, invariably follows that path 
in which conduction is the best. In other words, it moves in the line of “east 
resistance, and never leaves that line under any provocation. A river would as 
soon leave its bed and flow along the tops of the hills. Upon this general princi- 
ple the construction of lightning-rods is based. A line of least resistance is artifi. 
cially furnished, through which the flash may pass harmlessly into the ground. 
Occasionally, however, buildings which were apparently protected by suitable 
conductors have been seriously damaged by lightning. Hence many intelligent 
persons have been led into a distrust of lightning-rods. Some have even asserted 
that the rods not only failed to protect buildings from the effects of a stroke, but 
actually attracted the danger. But the difficulty always has been that the offend- 
ing conductors were not properly arranged, or, in short, did not ccnstitute the 
desired line of least resistanee. Many precautions have to be observed in the 
erection of lightning-rods, and to these we shall recur presently. Let us first see, 
however, whether there is evidence to warrant faith in good rods, and whether 
there is any truth in the notion that they increase the danger which they claim to 
avert. 
Now a vast number of facts go to prove the efficacy of suitably arranged rods. 
The church at Antrasmes, for instance, was twice struck by lightning, the flash 
following both times in precisely the same track. Certain picture frames were 
ungilded, certain bars of metal destroyed, and the portraits of the saints black- 
ened. A lightning conductor was finally applied to the building and it has not 
Iv—3 
