88 
On Electrical Phenomena observed at Sea . 
man, and scorched three or four others then upon the yard. 
Had there been a conductor up at that time, the chance is, that 
these brave men might have been saved ; but it does not actu- 
ally follow that the mizen mast would have been equally se- 
cure. 
Granting, then, the utility of a 64 chance, 1 ’ we have a right to 
conclude, that the lives of those aloft, or out upon the boom, 
and even the masts and boom themselves, are still but insecure, 
without a conductor being attached at each, which would com- 
prise in all an additional quantity of gear, not reconcileable to 
the trim and gallant order of a British man-of-war. 
The electric matter in the atmosphere, must either be in a 
quiescent or an active state. When the clouds become sur- 
charged and attract one another, the conductor might possibly 
be of use. But, again, if we consider, as frequently occurs, the 
atmosphere and the clouds charged heavily with matter, though 
still quiescent, could not the presence of such a conductor at such 
a time, operate in exciting a burst of electricity, pregnant with 
every danger, which would not have happened, without the pre- 
sence of such conductor itself, such conductor being a far more 
powerful agent than the mast, and not altogether capable of con- 
trolling the danger arising from the action of itself? The 
pointed mast is certainly always liable to influence, or attract the 
quiescent matter with all its force, but much more so is the con- 
ductor. Where, then, can be the great propriety of using an ap- 
paratus of doubtful tendency, which, though in some instances 
capable of fortuitous benefit, is, at others, liable to occasion incal- 
culable distress ? There are instances, no doubt, of the fluid 
being carried by the conductor most successfully to the water’s 
edge; but there is also another chance to the contrary, as well 
as a great probability, that many descents of the electric fluid, ei- 
ther with or without damage, would never actually have occur- 
red, had it not been for the presence of this more powerful 
apparatus. Whenever it can be fully proved, that accidents 
never have, nor never can take place, under the use of one or 
more conductors, whether they have been the means of exciting 
the electricity from the quiescent state or not, then, and not till 
then, can their undoubted utility be satisfactorily demonstrated. 
In the instance before mentioned, when the fluid fell with 
