PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. HE apprehension of danger from lightning, and the solicitude to discover and adopt means of security against it, are proportionate to the magnitude of the evils it produces rather than the frequency of their occurrence. The chances which any individual of the population of a large city incurs of being struck during a storm are infinitely less than those which he encounters in his daily walks of being destroyed by the casual fall of the buildings near which he passes, or by the encounter of carriages crossing his path, or from the burning of the house in which he lodges, or from a thousand other causes of danger to which he exposes himself without apprehension. Still, even those who possess the greatest animal courage are struck with awe, and affected more or less by fear, when exposed to the war of the elements in a violent storm; and there are none who, in such cases, will not willingly avail themselves of any means of protection which they believe to be availing. Augustus entertained such a dread of lightning that in storms he took refuge in caves, thinking that lightning never penetrates to any considerable depth in the ground. It was formerly believed that persons in bed were never struck by lightning; and a modern meteorologist, Mr. Howard, apparently favors such an idea, by relating two cases in 1828, in which beds were completely destroyed by lightning, while the persons who lay in them were uninjured. Against this, however, many contrary instances may be cited. On the 29th of September, 1779, Mr. Hearthly was killed in his bed, by lightning, at Harrowgate, while his wife, who lay beside him, escaped. On the 27th September, 1819, a servant was killed in her bed at Confolens, in France. In 1837, a house was struck with lightning at Kensington, near London, where a man and his wife were killed in their bed. The Romans believed that seal's skin was a preservative against lightning; and tents were made of this material for timid persons to shelter under in storms. Augustus was always provided with a seal's skin cloak. However ineffectual may be such an expedient, experience abundantly proves that the material of the dress is not without considerable influence on the course which lightning follows, and may, therefore, augment or diminish the peril of the wearers. When lightning struck the church at Château-neuf-les-Moutiers, during the celebration of mass, of the three priests who officiated at the altar, two were struck dead, and the third was uninjured. The vestments of the last were of silk. There are some well-attested facts which indicate a relation between color and the movements of the electric fluid. three cases are cited in which horses and oxen having white spots were struck by lightning, and had all the white hair burned off, while the remainder of the Strong fear, operating on ignorance, has prompted, in times past and present, a multitude of absurd and unavailing expedients, among which, nevertheless, chance seems to have flung some in which analogies to the results of modern science are apparent. When a cloud menaced thunder, the Thracians shot their arrows at it. The arrows being metal, were conductors, and, being pointed, had the virtue of attracting light-hide remained unaltered. ning. Pliny states that the Etruscans had a secret method by which they could draw lightning from the clouds, and guide it at their pleasure. Numa possessed the meth-customed to wear a crown of laurel, from od, and Tullus Hostilius, committing some the idea that lightning never struck it. oversight in the performance of the ceremony, was himself struck. For Numa substitute Franklin, and for Tullus, Richman, and the Roman legend is converted into a true historical record of the last century. It had been supposed that certain species of trees are proof against lightning, and never struck by it. Tiberius was ac The beech-tree is said to be a non-conductor of lightning. So notorious is the fact, that the Indians, whenever the sky wears the appearance of a thunder-storm, leave their pursuits and take refuge under the nearest beech-tree. In Tennessee PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 259 the people consider it a complete protec- | appeared, not the slightest trace of it retion. Dr. Becton, in a letter to Dr. Mit-mained. The lady was slightly wounded. chell, states that the beech-tree is never Brydone relates that a lady of his acquainknown to be struck by atmospheric electricity, while other trees are often shattered into splinters. May not a knowledge of this afford protection to many when exposed? When assailed by a storm in an open plain, the danger is greatly augmented by seeking the shelter of a tree. Experience and theory combine to prove this. The position of greatest safety is such a distance from the tree that it shall act as a conductor, diverting the lightning from the place assumed for safety. A distance of half a dozen yards may serve for this purpose. Glass, being a non-conductor of electricity, is generally supposed to have a protective virtue. Thus it has been presumed that a person enclosed in a cage of glass exposed to a thunder-storm, would be in absolute safety. This is proved to be a fallacy by many examples of lightning striking and penetrating the panes of windows and the frames of conservatories. Nothing is more clearly established than that pieces of metal of any kind, carried about the person, augment the danger of being struck by lightning; and this increase of peril is greater in proportion to the magnitude of the metallic appendages. That this material principle, illustrating as it does, one of the elementary laws of electricity, may be appreciated as fully as it ought to be, we shall here cite some of the numerous recorded examples of it. On the 21st of July, 1819, lightning struck the prison of Biberac, in Swabia, and, passing into the grand hall, struck an individual prisoner who was one in a group of twenty; the nineteen others were untouched. This individual was a brigand chief, who, being under sentence, was chained round the waist. When Saussure and his party were at Breven, in 1767, the metal band and gold button on the hat of M. Jallabat emitted sparks. Constantini relates, that in 1749, a lady wearing on her arm a gold bracelet, raised her hand to shut the window during a thunder-storm, the bracelet suddenly dis tance, Mrs. Douglass, sitting at an open window, during a storm, had her bonnet completely destroyed, but suffered no injury in her person. He accounts for the wire of the form of the bonnet attracting the lightning. These, and many other instances might be mentioned, sufficiently proving that safety is best consulted in time of storm, by laying aside all metallic appendages of the person, such as chains, watches, earrings, hair ornaments, &c. The source of the greatest danger is in the bars or plates of steel which are used in the corsets of females, and which ought to be abandoned by all ladies who do not desire to invite the approach of lightning. It has been already shown that when lightning passes along a line of conducting matter, the only points where explosion takes place and damage ensues, are at the parts where lightning enters and leaves the conductor; and as a necessary consequence of this, all interruption of continuity in any part of a conductor or series of conductors is attended with explosion and corresponding damage. Since, then, the bodies of men and animals afford a free passage to the electric fluid, it may be expected by analogy, that when lightning is transmitted through a chain of animals, either in mutual contact, or connected by conductors, the chief if not the only injury would be sustained by the first and last individuals of the series. This principle is accordingly supported by the results of experience. The following instances will illustrate it : On the 2d of August, 1785, a stable at Rambouillet was struck by lightning. A file of thirty-two horses received the fluid: of these, the first was laid stiff dead, and the last was severely wounded. The intermediate thirty were only thrown down. On the 22d of August, 1808, lightning struck a schoolroom in Knonau, in Switzerland. Five children read together on the same bench: the first and last were struck dead, the other three only sustained a shock. At Flavigny (Cote d'Or), the lightning struck a chain of five horses, killing the 'The danger from lightning during storms may be lessened, by observing some precautions suggested by the known properties of the electric fluids. Chimneys often afford an entrance to lightning, the soot which lines them being a conductor. Keep, therefore, at a distance from them. Avoid the neighborhood of all pieces of metal, gilt objects, such as the frames of glasses, pictures, and chandeliers. Mirrors, being silvered on the back, augment the danger. Avoid the proximity of bellwires. The middle of a large room in which no chandelier is suspended, is the safest position, and is rendered still more so by standing on a plate of glass, or a cake of resin or pitch, or sitting on a chair suspended by silken cords. first two and the last two, the middle horse | much more recently by Sir James Robinsuffering nothing. At a village in Franche- son, and to him is owing the alleged inComté, lightning struck a chain of five congruity. The front is very long, and horses, killing the first and last only. At the whole pile, with its cupolas, its roofs, Praville, near Chartres, a miller walked and its massy clustered chimneys, is stubetween a horse and a mule loaded with pendous. The approach is through an grain lightning struck them, killing the ancient gateway flanked with appropriate horse and mule. The man was unhurt, towers. The site of the present mansion except that his hat was burnt and his hair was formerly occupied by the old castle singed. of Hinderskelf, which was destroyed by an accidental fire. Castle Howard, its successor, was erected by the third earl of Carlisle, as he has himself informed us in some verses, amiable in sentiment, but not remarkable for spirit or elegance. The north front consists of an elaborate centre of the Corinthian order, with a cupola rising over the top, and on either side extensive wings, the east according to the original design, the west from Sir James Robinson's. The south or garden front is also very magnificent. Its centre, consisting of a pediment and entablature supported by fluted Corinthian pilasters, is approached by a grand flight of steps, and the view from these of the whole front is strikingly noble. At the extremity of the east wing is the kitchen with square towers at the angles. Before the south front a beautiful turf terrace, decorated with statues, extends away from the house for the space of half a mile, where it terminates in an Ionic temple with four porticoes, and a beautiful interior. The cornices of the door-cases are supported by Ionic columns of black and yellow marble; and in the corners of the room are pilasters of the same beautiful material. In niches over the door are various ancient busts. The floor is disposed in compartments of antique marble of various colors, and the whole crowned with a richly gilded dome. The danger of being struck with lightning is augmented by being placed in a crowd of persons. The living body being a conductor of electricity, a connected mass of such bodies is more likely to be stricken, for the same reason that a large mass of metal is more liable than a small one. CASTLE HOWARD. HE superb mansion of Castle Howard, is situated in a noble park about six miles west of Malton, in Yorkshire. The exterior of the edifice, as a whole, is grand and imposing, though not free from the charge of want of unity in its parts. The design for the buildings was made by Sir John Vanbrugh, the eminent architect of Blenheim; but one of the wings was built The interior of the castle fulfils all that the imagination, warmed by the outward grandeur, can expect or desire. The lofty and richly decorated rooms are everywhere teeming with objects of curiosity and vertù, and with the works and masterpieces of human skill, pictures, statues, and busts. To give our readers an adequate idea of the amazing riches scattered about in the greatest profusion, and attracting the eye in every apartment of the building is impossible. The pictures, for instance, are too numerous to allow us even to mention their names, although they are almost inestimable in value, as they are almost countless in number. Among them are works by almost every great master. There are three paintings in particular, which formed a portion of the celebrated Orleans gallery, and which found their way to England during the troubles of the French revolution. One is the "Finding of Moses," a fine specimen of the characteristic genius of the Spanish painter Don Diego Velasquez; another is the "Entombing of Christ," by Ludovico Carracci, a painting of extraordinary pathos, grandeur, and sublimity. But the most valuable of the three, and not only of the three, but of the whole collection, is the "Three Marys," by Annibal Car racci. tapestry, from designs by Rubens. In the same apartment are two pedestals of green porphyry, on one of which is a sylvan deity. The museum contains a great assemblage of interesting objects: among these are thirteen urns, wherein were formerly deposited the ashes of ancient heroes, an ancient mask, many busts, vases, &c. In the southwest corner is an object to gladden the heart of every antiquarian, of every scholar, and of every man of taste; we allude to a small cylindrical altar, about four feet and a half high, which is supposed to have stood in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, according to the site ascribed to it by Chandler. In the centre of four avenues of stately trees in the park, stands an obelisk, one hundred feet in height, bearing on one side inscriptions in Latin and English, commemorative of the valor and successes of the Duke of Marlborough; on the other, the verses we have before alluded to, recording that the plantations around, and The hall of the mansion, measuring thirty-five feet square, and sixty in height, is surmounted by a dome with Corinthian columns, the top of which is one hundred feet from the floor: it is very handsome the magnificent edifice they enclose, owe and noble. On the walls are representa- their existence to the third earl. The tions, by Pellegrini, of the history of date on the pillar is 1712. The park and Phaeton, with the four seasons, the twelve grounds are very extensive, and arranged signs, &c. In recesses are statues of Au- on a scale of grandeur commensurate with gustus, Marcus Aurelius, and other works the importance of the mansion and the of ancient sculpture. There are also family to which they belong, and the eye is many antique busts on pedestals. In the everywhere delighted with the intermixsaloon, a noble room, are many more stat-ture of lake, lawn, and forest. A splenues and busts, with a number of pictures. The ceiling is embellished with a representation of Aurora. The chimney-piece of the dining-room is unusually superb. The cornice of white and Sienna marbles, with groups of polished white in the centre, is supported by fluted columns of Sienna marble. Upon it are three fine bronzes. This room also contains two beautiful slabs of Sicilian jasper, and a valuable urn or vase of green porphyry, with many busts and pictures. In the breakfast-room are two elegant tables of verd antique, with various bronzes and pictures; and in a dressing-room are two curious cabinets of precious stones. The antique gallery, measuring 160 feet by 20, among many other curiosities, contains various rare and beautiful slabs, and a small antique statue, found in Severus's wall, gilt and inlaid. The walls of the drawing-room are richly decorated with did mausoleum stands about half a mile from the house. It is a circular building fifty feet in diameter, with a lofty dome, surmounted by a colonnade of twenty-five pillars of the Roman Doric order, the whole standing upon an elevated basement, which is reached by two flights of steps. The inside is very handsome: the cornice from which the dome rises is supported by eight columns, each standing on its pedestal; the dome is entirely of masonry, wrought in elegant compartments, and the pavement, corresponding in style, is inlaid with bronze ornaments, intermixed with various marbles. The ornaments generally are very light and beautiful. The basement contains sixty-four catacombs built under groined arches. Here repose the remains of the third earl. At the entrance of the wood, which shelters the house from the east, stands a square pedestal decorated with |