The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-09-04

~ manlfests itself, nor what tests are usual
ly employed, nor does he need to know, fol
the green apple stick decides the point.
de must not, however, wear rubber boots
leather bootf are preferable. In this way
four thousand tests have been made and re-
peated; sometimes with a green apple stick,
sometimes with an elm stick. Changing
the character of the stick. however. appear.
ed to make no difference. Further expert
ments, however, are needed to clearly
establish this point.
When the stick points to the ground it
is clear evidence that a lightning rod must
be led to this point. If no earth currents
are found by this method, the house in this
locality is pronounced to be safe, and does
not need lightning rods. The Messrs.
Prescott form a marked exception to the
old adage that "a prophet is not without
honor save in his own country and among
his own kindred" for no other ''lightning
rod man" is employed in the neighborhood
of their native town, Merrimac, and their
fame has spread far and wide. Treasures
and presidents of banks, city engineers,
teachers in academies and schools, proclaim
that, however impossible it may seem, they
have been witnesses to the Messrs. Pres
colts skill-perhaps we should say to Mr..
Prescott's skill, for one of the brothers ex-
GELS the other in this matter-and no
amount of scientific skepticism can change
their faith in Mr.. Prescott's discovery.
Hundreds of people are ready to testify the
fact that Mr.. Prescott has repeatedly dis
covered places where lightning has struck
in the past and on being led by the oldest
inhabitant into places remote from the
Prescott homestead, has infallibly pro-
claimed to the awestruck observers,
lightning once struck within fou feet or
less of this point" So much for the prac-
tice. Now for the theory.
1t is claimed that s'the human frame is
the most sensitive to electrical influences of
any organized form. Indeed, so far as
c%ognixant to the sense and present knewl-
edge, electricity seems to be the factor of
the mysterious principle Of life in the work
of the human system" Mr.. Prescott has a
wonderfully sensitive organization. He
has the hitherto unknown electric sense,
and he can, to speak metaphorically, smell
electricity or taste it in the air or earth.
He is not, however, the only person who
has claimed to have the power. If he and
his friends will procure a copy of Baron
Charles Won R~eichenbach's ''Physico-Physi-
illogical Researches in the Dynamics of
Magnetism, Electricity, Capitalization, and
Chemism,' published in Partridge & Brit
tain's Spiritual Library, it will be found
that Mr.. Prescott belongs to the class call
ed sick sensitives; in other words, to a
class of persons whose systems are supposed
to be peculiarly sensitive from disease to
general cosmical phenomena. In the same
book will also he found a long account of
the use of a forked stick, which use is there
called Bletonism, from the name of an agri-
cultural laborer who had great success in
its use. It is evident that agriculture is
about to assert itself in the cognate field of
electricity and magnetism. An account OF
the forked stick can also be found in DR..
Hutton's Mathematical Rocreations, which
is q translation with additions of Montucla's
improvement Of OZanam's Recreations. An
account of the virtues of the forked stick
can also be found in DIR. Herbert Mayo's
"On the Truths contained in Popular Su-
perstitions' Letter XII. london, Sd ed,
1857 1t may interest Mr.. Prescott to
know that his forked stick has various
names. 1t has been called divining rod,
virgula divina, baculus divinatorious,
baquette divinatorie. and the wonders &C
somplished by its use have been testified to
by thousands of people for more thar a
century. If Mr.. Prescott is a reader of
fiction, he will also find an account Of
Douster Swivel's use of the forked stick in
Walter SCOTS novel THE Antiauary."
1t is said by Mr. Prescott's believers that
if he did not use such an absurdly simple
continuance as q forked stick he would
have more follower and make a greater
fortune. Indeed, it has been proposed that
ne should get up a complicated continuance
with a maze CT wheels and electro magnets,
which should have nothing, however, to do
With his method; but walking forth in
boots Qeather,) with the stick and the ma
chine, he should attribute the discoveries
to the machine. Pessimists claim that he
would then be in entire sympathy with the
age.