330 On Electricity and its Present Applications. [June, 
often trifurcate— at their upper extremity, and the Genie 
gives a very decided preference to this kind of passage, hot 
by way of exit and entrance, and when making use of it he 
is quietly led either downwards or upwards, whichever way 
he requires to go, till all danger of a sudden outbuist is 
past. e , 
For many ages mankind were almost . unaware ot tne 
presence among them of this powerful spirit ; nor did they 
know that he was unceasingly employed in their service ; 
and much less were they able to summon him at will to 
appear visibly and tangibly before them, to exhibit some of 
his wonderful powers. When at last they did succeed in 
this the utmost wonder and interest were excited by the 
display, although the form it took was what might at present 
be looked upon as mere childish tricks compared with the 
stupendous and beneficent powers of which he is now 
proved to be possessed. His favourite resting-place of 
retirement is, as I have said, deep in the inteiioi of the 
world, from which, however, he is continually emerging and 
gliding to and fro through the earth and the air, doing an 
infinite variety of useful and beneficent work ; after accom- 
plishing which he, by the law of his existence, quietly retires 
to the place of his concealment. But if anything should 
stand in his way, or resist his passage, woe be to that person 
or thing! Personal injury, or even destruction or death, is 
sure to be the result. 
While thus pent up, miles deep in the interior of the 
earth, and finding no ready means of escape, he will some- 
times break the bonds of his prison and force a passage or 
place of exit for himself, and in doing so shake the earth for 
miles around, leaving great rents in it, overturning buildings, 
destroying millions’ worth of property and thousands of 
lives. This heavy charge, at all events, has been brought 
against Electron as one of the various hypotheses that have 
been suggested in explanation of earthquakes. But though 
he may in some degree be connected with these phenomena, 
there is far from sufficient proof that he is the principal or 
sole agent, and in a Court of Science the verdict could not 
be more than “ Not proven.” But if he he the great cause 
of these terrible convulsions, might it not be possible that 
the happy invention of Franklin, which has averted so many 
of the disastrous effects of aerial and surface lightning, 
could also, in some way, be applied to the deep underground 
storms (if indeed the depth were not too great) which are 
supposed to be connected with earthquakes ? 
Colonel Arthur Parnell, writing on the subject in the 
