450 Remarks by the Editor. 



never heard of after its entrance into the Mediterranean, was probably 

 blown up or sunk by this same meteor ; and that the instances of 

 burnings in the preceding list, are by no means the only ones which 

 might be enumerated. Thus, for example, the Logan of New York, of 

 420 tons and of £20,000 value, was entirely consumed ; the Hannibal of 

 Boston shared the same fate in 1824. Moreover, the crews do not suf- 

 fer less than the masts, the cordage, and the hulks of ships. Thus 

 there were two men killed, and twenty-two wounded by the thunderbolt, 

 which, in the year 1 799, struck the Cambrian at Plymouth ; under the 

 same circumstances, the Sultan, at Mahon, lost Jive men killed on the 

 spot, two thrown into the sea and drowned, and three more, severely 

 burned; nine men perished on board the Repulse, by the flash which 

 struck that vessel in the Bay of Rosas in 1809; and there were three 

 seamen killed, and five wounded on board the Austrian frigate Leipsig, 

 when she was struck on the coast of Cephalonia. 



The facts, however which I have already reported, ought to be suf- 

 ficient. They have been cited without exaggeration, and without con- 

 cealment. Every one, therefore, may appreciate at its true value 

 the importance of the various methods which have been proposed for 

 preservation against lightning. It is now time, then, to submit these to 

 serious consideration.* 



Remarks by the Editor. 

 It is due to the non-scientific portion of our readers to 

 offer a few remarks in explanation of papers, devoted strictly 

 to pure science. Such communications are essentially the 

 most important that could occupy our pages, as their object 

 is usually directed to clear up or establish some fundamental 

 principle on which the extension of science depends. Mr. 

 Jameson's paper, in our present number, on the natural 

 classification of Falconidce, which we hope to continue, though 

 relating to the highest objects of science, would afford but 

 little interest to those who do not know what the natural 

 system is. We might quote very beautiful illustrations of 

 the importance of system or method in the study of nature, 

 by which all objects of the creation are classed in groups 



* From M. Arago's essay on Thunder. 



