The daily gazette., 1880-07-30
CHARMS AGAINST LIGHTNING.
THE SAFEGUARDS WHICH sUPERsTI-
TIoN HAS RAISED AGAINST THUN-
DER-STORMS.

THE SAFEGUARDS WHICH SUPERsTI-
TIoN HAS RAISED AGAINST THUN-
DER-sToRMs.
From the Kondon Telegraph.
Science, with all its confidence, has
provided no safeguards against thunder
storms. 1t can warn, but it cannot pro-
tect. Conductors may happily carry of
the electric current, but they cannot Sc
cure us from danger. The timid may
be told emphatically TO stand in the
middle of the room, TO avoid freplaces
and brass ornaments, or to roll them
selves up in feather beds or hearth rugs;
but these precautions will be of little
avail If houses, as at Manchester, tum-
BILE down and bury all alike, the terri
fed and the bold, in common ruin.
There have been, in all ages, popular
superstitions having for their object to
avert the dangers of thunder and light
der and lightning. The Thracian SOL
die-s took up their bows and arrows
and fired into the clouds to drive away
the storm, and 1t was considered neces-
sary to erect cross on st. Paul's stee-
pie, filled with the relics of saints, In Or
der to free the city from all danger OF
destructive tempest5. Constant to the
belief that an evil spirit ragged in the
storm, it was a custom in old times, as
we'll in England as in France and Ger
many, to ring church bells, in order to
protect the frightened inhabitants.
When they rang out the great bell at
the Abbey of st. German, in Paris, oI
chimed in the tower of st. Adelon, il
Malmesbury Abbey, the faithful assist
ed the bell-rinsers with their prayer.
and helped to stay the storm. Man,
more homely charms against thunder
aud lightning exist to this dag in some
parts OF England. The curious herb
known as the houseleek, growing on
the house-top of rustic cottages, is sup
posed to be as valuable preservative as
any scientific conductor of approved
pattern. Peasants, true to the faith Of
their forefathers, still carry beneath
their waistcoats scraps of bay leaf or
laurel as an amulet-a custom as old as
if not older, than the days of Tiberiu'
Cesar. We may have got beyond the
super stition that allowed a dead maj
killed by storm TO lie where he fell
in order that the spot might be fenced
about and sheep promptly sacrificed
ON a rude altar; but it would be strange
if country folk did not still place colo
iron bar on the beer barrels TO prevent
the liquor from turning sour during q
thunderstorm; and that swans eggs are
only Matched during load peal of thun-
der is belief yet cherished by those
who watch this bird for signs of atmos-
pherical electricity as closely and conf
dent'y as they listen for the scream Of
the peacock 10 betoken rain.
Countless experiments have beer
tried to ascertain the scientific causes o.
a thunderstorm and to determine its
proper meaning, from the time when
Franklin sent up his silk kite attached
to dry hempen cord and narrowly es-
capped the danger of drawing fire from
the heavens, until the days when cleo
tric researches were checked by the
death of Professor Richmann, of st.
Petersburg, who drew out So much cleo
tricity from the thunder-cloud that he
was promptly killed on the spot. 1t is
consolatory to reflect, however, that the
chances Of being personally injured by
/ ghi ming are very much less than the
risks involved in thousand human in-
ventions.