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the English commission, the silence which they have thought it their duty to keep respecting my new system of lightning-rods, while giving the regulations and laws which, according to it, secure the most efficacious protection, aside from all consideration of the constructors who advertise so largely, or who are protected by letters-patent.

The distinguished electrician of Brussels is not without good ground for this complaint, but he may console himself for his disappointment in the approval of his system that has been accorded by other highly competent authorities. In his "Report on Static Electricity and Paratonnerres" at the International Exhibition of Electricity at Paris in 1881, Professor M. E. Rousseau says:

From the comparative examination that I have made, I am convinced that in each of the three constituent parts of which the lightning-conductor is composed, namely, the point, the rod, and the root or earth contact, the system of M. Melsens has a marked superiority over the old system; and, as MM. Angot and Nardi have remarked, must be regarded as efficacious as the old system, if not more so, besides being at the same time less costly.^[1]

M. Angot, the author of an able treatise on "Elementary Physics," printed in Paris in 1881, speaks of Professor Melsens's system of lightning-protection as being "more efficacious, as well as less costly, than the older plan, and sure to come soon into general use." M. Nardi, in a memoir on "The Parafulmine of Melsens," printed at Vicenza in 1881, describes the multiple system of points and rods and the large earth contacts adopted by Professor Melsens as being "the most rational, the most efficacious, the most easy to construct and fix, and the least costly of all the alternative systems of construction." M. Mascart, Professor of Physics in the College of France, in his excellent treatise on "Static Electricity," describes the entire system devised by Professor Melsens as "forming, without any doubt, the most beautiful model of the paratonnerre that has been realized." The frank and outspoken acceptance and praise of France, Italy, and Belgium may, therefore, fairly be placed as a set-off against what Professor Melsens feels to be the discourteous, if not condemnatory, silence of London.

Since the appearance of the report of the Lightning-Rod Conference a small volume has been published by "Major Arthur Parnell, of the Royal Engineers,"^[2] entitled "The Action of Lightning, and the Means of defending Life and Property from its Effects." In this little book the author has been at the pains to compile a reference to a very large number of accidents that have been occasioned by lightning. This, however, has been done for an ulterior and somewhat insidious purpose. He has a new theory of his own to propound, and a revolution in the practice of lightning-rod engineering to propose. He wishes

1. Professor Melsens estimates that the cost of effective protection by the old system amounts to very nearly 412 francs the square metre, but by his system to only 0·66 of a franc the square metre.
2. Now Colonel Parnell.