Lightning Conductors to Powder Magazines. 501 



Note. 



Dr. O'Shaughnessy, who saw the lightning strike repeatedly not a 

 hundred yards from his house, objects to our note, page 436, and says, 

 M. Arago's words are, "Can you see the lightning strike you?" As the 

 Doctor states that he is engaged in translating M. Arago's essay, he is 

 probably in possession of the only French copy of the work in Calcutta, 

 and ought to know best. The following however is a translation of M. 

 Arago's words from the " Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal." 



" Does the Lightning strike before it becomes visible ? 



" I much question if any natural philosopher has, for some years, 

 hazarded publicly to propose the question at the head of this section. 

 During this period it has been supposed that nothing could, by possibi- 

 lity, be more rapid than lightning. A well determined velocity of 

 eighty thousand leagues a second, appeared so astonishing, that the 

 imagination never ventured to think of going further. The experi- 

 ments, however, of Mr. Wheatstone will probably effect a change upon 

 this point. These have, in truth, I will not say demonstrated, but they 

 have at least led us to conceive the possibility of even greater velocities 

 than that of light ; and that, in a substance whose identity with light- 

 ning, a hundred comparisons tend to establish. The suspicion then 

 announced at the head of this chapter, merits investigation in a theore- 

 tical point of view. Meteorology must gain by the inquiry ; and I 

 imagine the problem has a relation, on some points, to physiology. 

 Finally, it appears to me that many timid individuals will be spared 

 many poignant moments during thunder-storms, were it proved that 

 nothing is to be apprehended when the flash has been seen." — Edinb. 

 New Phil. Journal, No. li. p. 143. 



Indication of a Nondescript Species of Deer. By John 

 M'Clelland. 



Captain Guthrie, of the Bengal Engineers, employed in 

 the construction of a road from the valley of Katchar to 

 Moneypore, procured the horns of a Deer whose lower 

 or basal antler descends in the axis of the beam, ra- 

 ther as an extension of the horn itself than as a mere 

 shoot. The horn may be compared to the segment of 

 a circle, the burr, or root from which both limbs extend 

 being placed on the outer circumference. The beam is 

 round, and terminates by a fork, as in the Russa Deer. The 

 lower prolongation of the horn beneath the burr may also 

 be said to terminate in a fork, for on the left horn, about two 



