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regarded as an omen of no small importance. The electricity upon the tops of masts was formerly considered as spirits. "Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, etc." "Likewise they counterfeit suns and moons oftentimes, and sit on ships' masts," remarks old Burton, in his curious work, The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Experience taught those who were more exposed to the effects of sudden electrical explosions from clouds, that these pointed bodies were useful for their protection; and it is stated that in the reign of Louis XIV., sailors were in the habit of affixing a pointed sword to the mast. A learned priest, the Abbé Shiers, who died in 1703, in enumerating the superstitious practices of his time, mentions this as one which was always used during or before an expected storm. The immortal discovery of Franklin, however, explained the practice on philosophical principles.

In tropical regions, in sultry weather, it is an occasional occurrence, when the air is extremely heated, to see the presence of electricity manifested by small tufts of light upon the various parts of the clothes-the same appearance takes place at the extremities of the fingers, hair, etc. Such phenomena will only occur when the air is very dry, and the electric fluid is seeking a passage as it were, to the common reservoir, the earth.

The evil effects of atmospheric electricity may be obviated by the general means which destroy the excessive susceptibility of the nervous system-such as exercise, sleep taken in sufficient quantity, and at appropriate periods, absence of all stimulants of the brain, cold bathing, a country residence, etc. Even at the time of the storm, the intensity of its effects may be obviated by avoiding too great a variety of food, and particularly of such as is of an opposite quality, the promotion of digestion by agreeable conversation, a walk in a cool apartment, etc.

Besides these effects, a man may experience such as arise from the concussion whenever his body becomes the medium of communication, or the conductor of electricity. The shock is oftentimes so severe as to kill him instantaneously, especially if his body is wet; sometimes the fluid will glance along the body, leaving marks, and often burning it with great severity; at other times, death has occurred without any shock whatever, apparently by the sudden vacuum occurring, whereby the individual has been suddenly deprived of breath; the sensations described by those who have recovered, appear to warrant this conclusion.

To prevent these effects, we must avail ourselves of the facts which science has demonstrated to us in the use both of conducting and non-conducting bodies. The ordinary lightning-rod, so much in use in this country, is the best instrument for silently conducting the electricity to the earth. The modern mode of covering the roofs of houses with metal, if this is connected with a tin leader reaching to the ground, is the next best method of protection by means of a conductor-there being innumerable small edges and points on the roof, which serve to attract the electricity silently from the clouds.

Stone is a bad conductor; a seat upon the stone steps of a cellar for fearful persons, will afford sufficient assurance of safety. A feather bed is another safe place of refuge. Two equally opposite means could scarcely be found, and the most diverse peculiarity of taste could be satisfied in selecting a secure retreat from the terrors of a thunderstorm. The bedstead should be removed from the wall; a seat should never be taken by a window, under a tree, or by a fire-place. The latter, especially, should be avoided-for not only is the chimney liable to be struck from its being the highest part of the house, but when wood or bituminous coal is burned, it is coated with soot, a substance possessing great conducting properties.

Before the introduction of lightning-rods, lightning was often a cause of death, especially previous to the early part of the last century (when, in some parts of Europe, it was the custom to ring the bells during a thunder-storm, on account of a superstitious notion prevalent at that time), by the exposure of persons to the attraction of points, and the conducting power of moist ropes. During the night of the fifteenth of April, 1718, the lightning struck in Lower Brittany, in the space which separates Landerman from Saint-Paul-de-Leon, upon twenty-four steeples, and those particularly in which bells were rung for the purpose of averting such an occurrence. On the eleventh of July, 1819, while the bell in the village of Châteaux Vieux was tolling on the occasion of a funeral celebration, the lightning struck the steeple, killed nine persons on the spot, and wounded twenty-two. Statistics of such occurrences have been made in France, from which it appears that during the space of thirty-three years, the lightning struck three hundred and eighty-six steeples, and killed one hundred and three bellringers! These results could only happen, while prejudices are maintained against the use of lightning conductors. In our own country, where conductors are in general use, these accidents are never heard of.

It is dangerous, also, to fly kites during a thunder-storm, especially as the drops of water render the string wet, and which thereby becomes a conductor.

It has been estimated, by a calculation founded upon the difference in the rapidity of the movement of the light and sound, that when the cloud is at the distance of nine hundred and seventy-eight feet, a second, or one pulsation of the artery, may be counted between the flash and the noise; two thousand and seventy-six feet, when two are counted, and so on. If this estimate of the distance of electric bodies is of little utility in guarding against accidents, it will at least serve to re-assure timid persons, by proving to them

that when they have seen the light they need not fear the explosion.

Some animals possess the power of imparting an electric shock, and employ it for the purpose of disabling their prey, or defending themselves from the attacks of an enemy. The torpedo, cramp-fish, and electrical eel, are among these. The last mentioned, gymnotus electricus, abounds in the rivers and stagnant pools in Columbia, S. A. It is of considerable size, being about six feet long. The electric shock is conveyed through the hand, or any metallic conductor which touches the fish; and a stroke of one of the largest kind would prove instant death to a man. The angler sometimes receives a shock from them through the wetted rod and fishing line. An old frequented road near Urutica, has been actually abandoned, on account of the danger experienced from crossing a ford, where the mules were, from the effects of concealed shocks, often paralyzed and drowned.

This faculty has not been confined entirely to the lower animals. A very curious fact was related in the journals a few years since, where a young infant was found to possess the power of giving a severe shock to those who first handled it. A series of philosophical experiments were tried with this animated electrical machine. The child was placed in a cradle, which was put upon glass legs, and from the body a Leyden jar was charged, sparks were drawn, and many other of the usual phenomena of an electrical machine were exhibited.

SKETCHES OF WESTERN PRACTICE.

HAVE you ever had a ride on the great western Mediterranean-silver-surfaced and placid old Erie? She is one of that vast sisterhood of lakes, that stretches from the Far West, through a region of two thousand miles in extent, and loses its self-hood in the majestic Niagara. Her musical shores wash the whole northern boundary of Ohio; and at short intervals, this glorious body of water is fed with rivers, some of which are worthy of the name, and others come creeping through a bed of rank weeds, for a distance of fifty miles, and mingle their turbid waters with this crystal fountain. Like all rivers skirted with marshes, a crop of bilious fevers are occasionally worked into being, from the fermenting mass of rotting vegetation found along their beds. It was on a main road-running through a wellpopulated country-two miles from the bed of one of these rivers, that I set myself down with my household gods, in a land of strangers. How I was to procure bread, or what I was to do, were shrouded in the mysterious future. Memory came in to console me for in spite of myself, the

Diary of a London Physician," that I had read in my younger days, came with its racy pictures, flitting before my mind's eye; and I knew not but I, too, might wish myself, my Mary, and my child, sleeping in the cold grave, to hide me from the persecution that seemed to follow me with such sleepless vigilance.

There is an hour, even in the history of a physician, when

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