443 ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENA. 
the time of a thunder storm, to place theinselt^ 
few yards of a tree, but not quite near it. ,igh®V 
however, cautions persons not to depend on a 
in all cases, a better conductor than their own oo 
according to his repeated observations, the 
means descends in one undivided track, but boo^ 
rious kinds conduct their share of it at the 
jtroportion to 
... their quantity and conducting P °'' ^ 
ite Earl Stanhope, in his principles of It 
ths 
that damage may be done by lightning, not 
main stroke and lateral explosion, but likewise 
calls THE RETURNING STROKE; that is, b/ 7 
violent return of that part of the natural share o 
of any conducting body, or any combination 
bodies, which had been gradiwlly expelled fro'* gist' 
or bodies respectively, by the superinduced elas j 
pressure of a thunder-cloud’s electrical atmospb^^^ 
jtii 
Among the awful phenomena of nature, 
cited more terror than thunder and lightning- liJf.V' 
of several of the profligate Roman emperors, 
cured themselves to be deified, that when .Ay 
thunder, they tremblingly conce.aled themseb^’^ Jw 
lodging a divine power greater lh;in their own 
thunderitis in the heavens'! 
REMARKAJ5I.K THUNDER .STORM-*’" 1|Jj 
A FEW instances in which the effects of tbe.se resb"5 ^ 
been particularly characterised, will be both n’ jf 
instructive. , '.V 
itruciive. , gja yr 
That fermented liquors are apt to be soure ^ jiib’jjy' 
thunder, is a fiicL well known ; but that 
by iimijum, 13 .. .....I, , ..... — ikat"‘ 1 
should be so acted on, is a still more rcnia 
roenon, and not so easy of explanation. It grtt>’^>'^ 
ever, some years ago, that in the iminenso ^ ^ 
DANTZic, the repositories of the corn, ot tit':, 
'mtended for exportation, the wheat and 0 
before dry and sweet, were, by the effect of ‘ yitib' g, f 
der-storm in the night, rendered clammy (|)S 
somuch that it required several weeks to sW 
eeteb 
render them fit for shipping. ^,,(1 
of a tliunder-storm on a houso^_‘ i* 
/ 
The effects 
tnre, at New 
Forge, Ireland, on the 
pth 
