1883.] Earthquakes and Electricity. jot 
that also earthquakes, aurorse, and whirlwinds were derived 
from the same cause. It is most noteworthy that he, one 
of the great pioneers of electricity, one of the men who 
attended at its birth, — the man who above all his fellows 
minutely searched into its operations and effects in regard 
to Nature, and the man who, of all the great labourers in 
the electrical vineyard (living as he did in Italy, a land which, 
probably far beyond other European lands, gives facilities 
to the natural philosopher for studying the aCtion both of 
the thunderbolt and of the earthquake), had the greatest 
natural opportunities for arriving at the truth, — should have 
thus deliberately recorded his convictions respecting the 
electrical source of earthquakes. And it is equally remark- 
able that these convictions should have been deliberately 
rejected by almost every one of his contemporaries and suc- 
cessors. For to this day there is hardly a scientific man in 
Europe who entertains even Beccaria’s view as to the earth- 
sprung nature of lightning-strokes. How then can we expeCt 
that, in the absence of this essential preliminary step, the 
whole development of Beccaria’s theory could ever have 
been adopted ? 
We have already drawn attention to a great English phi- 
losopher of those times, viz., Dr. Joseph Priestley, F.R.S., 
who wrote “ The History and Present State of Electricity, 
with Original Experiments, the fourth edition of which ap- 
peared in 1775. On the mind of Priestley the researches 
and opinions of Beccaria had evidently made a strong im- 
pression, and it was in no faltering spirit that Priestley 
supported the views of his great master. The “ Queries 
and Hints ” on terrestrial electricity modestly propounded 
by Priestley are of a very pregnant nature. He says, “ May 
not the void space above the clouds be always occupied with 
an electricity opposite to that of the earth ? And may not 
the thunder, earthquakes, &c., be occasioned by the rushing 
of the eleCtric fluid between them whenever the redundancy 
in either is excessive ? Is not the Aurora Borealis, and 
other electrical meteors which are remarkably bright and 
frequent before earthquakes, some evidence of this ? ” ... 
“ Is not the earth in a constant state of moderate electrifi- 
cation ? ” ... “ And is it not probable that earthquakes, 
hurricanes, &c., as well as lightning, are the consequences 
of a too powerful electricity in the earth ?”...“ Supposing 
earthquakes to be caused by the discharge of a redundant 
electricity from the surface of the earth, might they not be 
prevented in countries subject to them by kites flying very 
high, with wires in the strings so as to promote, an easy 
