Chapter V: Appendix: V

MERCATOR’S PROJECTION 559

GENERAL INDEX OF SELECTED AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS 565

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ST. AUGUSTINE _Frontispiece_

“La Cité de Dieu, translatée et exposée par Raoul de
Presles.” Taken from the manuscript in the Musée de
Chantilly, by permission of the executors of Monsieur le
Duc d’Aumale.

_Facing page_

CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS 11

Page taken from the earliest known edition of the “Naturalis
Historiae” Venetiis, 1469, of which there are only three known
original vellum copies. These now are at Vienna, Ravenna and in
the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

ARISTOTLE 11

“De Naturali Auscultatione.” Title-page of the Paris 1542
edition. This belonged to Dr. William Gilberd, when at
Cambridge, and is inscribed with his name and with that of
Archdeacon Thomas Drant. (From the library of the late Silvanus
P. Thompson).

GUIOT DE PROVINS 30

“La Bible.” Page 93 _verso_ of MS. Fr., No. 25405, _Variorum
Poëmata_, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS 33

“Speculum Naturale.” Page taken from the (Argentorati) 1473
issue, _la première édition et la plus rare de toutes_. In the
Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

BRUNETTO LATINI 43

“Li Livres dou Trésor.” Page taken from the XVth Century MS.
(originally copied by Jean du Quesne), No. 191, _Trésor de
Sapience_, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

DANTE ALIGHIERI 44

“La Divina Commedia,” Mantuae 1472, the first page of what is
by many regarded as the oldest edition of the earliest known
poem written in the Italian language. Now in the Bibliothèque
Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

PETRUS PEREGRINUS 46

“Epistola ... de Magnete.” _The earliest known treatise of
experimental science._ Original photographic reproduction
of first page of the almost illegible MS. No. 7378 A; page
67 _recto_ (embraced in a geometrical treatise), now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

PETRUS PEREGRINUS 52

Facsimile of Bodleian MS., No. 7027 (MS. Ashmole No. 1522),
folio 186 _verso_, being Chap. II, Part II, of the “Epistola
... de Magnete,” wherein is described _the earliest known
pivoted compass_.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS _Between_ 64 _and_ 65

Photographic reproduction of his letter, March 21, 1502, to
Nicolo Oderigo, Ambassador to France and to Spain, which was
acquired by the King of Sardinia and presented by him to the
city of Genoa. It is now preserved in the Palace of the Genoese
Municipality.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS _Between_ 64 _and_ 65

Translation of the letter written by him to Nicolo Oderigo,
shown here on opposite plate; made into English by Mr. Geo. A.
Barwick, B.A., of the British Museum. Permission to copy both
the original letter and its translation was given by Messrs. B.
F. Stevens and Brown, London.

CECCO D’ASCOLI 524

Last page of the earliest known edition of his “Acerba,”
Venetia, 1476. Printed nineteen times up to and including the
edition of 1546. Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève,
Paris.

LACTANTIUS 524

“De Divinis Institutionibus.” Page taken from the Sublacensi
1465 edition, called by Joannis Vogt _inter rariora
typographiae incunabula rarissimum_. In the Bibliothèque Sainte
Geneviève, Paris.

PEDRO NUÑEZ 530

“Traitte que le docteur P. Nunes fit sur certaines doubtes de
la Navigation.” Page 9 _verso_ of MS. Fr. No. 1338, now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

FROM B.C. 2637 TO A.D. 1821

=B.C. 2637.=--This date has been conclusively shown to be the earliest one at which history notes anything resembling the application of the magnetic influence. It is related that, during this sixty-first year of the reign of Hoang-ti (Yeou-hioung-che, also named Koung-fun and Hiuen-yuen), the emperor’s troops, who were pursuing the rebellious prince Tchéyeou (Tchi-yeou), lost their way, as well as the course of the wind, and likewise the sight of their enemy, during the heavy fogs prevailing in the plains of Tchou-lou. Seeing which, Hoang-ti constructed a chariot upon which stood erect a prominent female figure which indicated the four cardinal points, and which always turned to the south whatever might be the direction taken by the chariot. Thus he succeeded in capturing the rebellious prince, who was put to death.

Some say that upon this chariot stood a needle, to denote the four parts of the world. That, states the French author writing in 1736, would “indicate the use of the compass, or something very similar to it ... and it is unfortunate that the device has not been explained more fully.”

REFERENCES.--Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye,
1736. Vol. I. pp. 270–271; B.C. 2634, Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp.
33, 34, 71, 74, 76, 79, 82; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, pp.
186, 214; Staunton’s “China,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 446;
“Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III. p. 736; Buffon, “La Terre,” Vol. I.
p. 304; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. 14; Humboldt,
“Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V. p. 51, for Ed. Biot in _Comptes Rendus_,
Vol. XIX. 1844, p. 822; Dr. A. T. Thompson, translation of
Salverte’s “Philosophy of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chap. xi. p.
222 (note), wherein he alludes to Davies’ “Early History of
the Mariner’s Compass”; “British Annual,” 1837; Saillant et
Nyon, “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1788, Vol. XIII.
pp. 234–235, giving chronological tables of the history of
China, also p. 227 relative to Hoang-ti; P. Etienne Souciet,
“Observations,” Paris, 1732, Vol. II. pp. 94–95.

Hoang-ti (Hoang, supreme king), third in the “Period of the Five Emperors” (Claude Augé, “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. V. p. 134), regarded as the founder of the Chinese Empire, died at the age of 121, after reigning 100 years, B.C. 2598. Mailla (Joseph A. M. de Moyriac de) in his “Histoire ... traduite du Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou,” Paris, 1777, Vol. I. p. 28, makes the latter date 2599, as do likewise, Dr. Hœfer (“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Paris, 1858, Vol. XXIV. pp. 817–819) and Pierre Larousse (“Grand Dict, du XIX^e Siècle,” 1873, Vol. IX. p. 317), but Michaud (“Biogr. Univer.,” 1857, Vol. XIX. pp. 476–477) says he reigned from 2698 to 2577 B.C., and, in “La Grande Encyclop.,” Vol. XX. pp. 157–158, we are told that the correct period is 2697–2597 B.C. (“L’art de vérifier les dates,” Paris, 1819, Vol. IV. p. 8).

The above-named work of Jean Baptiste Du Halde on China is considered the most complete account of that vast empire that has appeared in Europe (“New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. VIII. p. 175). In any case, remarks Mr. Demetrius C. Boulger (“History of China,” London, 1881, Vol. I. pp. 4–5), it is incontestable that the individuality of Hoang-ti, who was the successor of “Fo-hi,” the first great Chinese emperor, is much more tangible than that of any of his predecessors.[1] By him, it is well recorded that the extensive Chinese territory (Empire) was divided into ten provinces, or _Chow_, each of which was subdivided into ten departments, or _Tsee_, and these again into ten districts, or _Tou_, each of them containing ten towns, or _Ye_.

=B.C. 1110.=--Tcheou-Koung is said to have at this date taught the use of the needle compass to the envoys from Youa-tchang. “As the ambassadors sent from Cochin China and Tonquin” (Humboldt, “Cosmos” Vol. V. p. 51) “were about to take their departure” (which was in the twenty-second cycle, more than 1040 years B.C.), “Tcheou-Koung gave them an instrument which upon one side always turned toward the north and on the opposite side to the south, the better to direct them upon their homeward voyage.[2] This instrument was called _tchi-nan_ (chariot of the south), and it is still the name given to the compass, which leads to the belief that Tcheou-Koung invented the latter.” In his chapter on “The Magnetic Needle,” Humboldt says the apparatus was called _fse-nan_ (indicator of the south).

Tcheou-Koung (Ki-tan) was Chinese Minister of State under both Von-Vang (the first emperor of the Tcheou dynasty, who ruled seven years) and Tsching-Vang (second emperor, who ruled thirty-seven years), and lived to be 100 years old. He was one of the most learned and most popular men China has ever known, and is spoken of to this day by the Chinese “with an admiration bordering upon enthusiasm” (Saillant et Nyon, “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1776, Vol. III. p. 37). The emperor Tsching-Vang caused Tcheou-Koung’s body to be interred near his father’s remains, after giving it imperial funeral honours.

REFERENCES.--Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye,
1736, Vol. I. p. 312; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 81; Azuni,
“Boussole,” pp. 190–191; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol.
II. p. 628, and Vol. V. p. 52.

=B.C. 1084.=--According to Æschylus, the father of the Athenian drama, Agamemnon employed a line of optical signals to advise his queen Clytemnestra of the fall of Troy. Robert Browning’s translation, London, 1877, runs as follows:

“Troia, the Achaioi hold....
Hephaistos--sending a bright blaze from Idé
Beacon did beacon send, from fire the poster,
Hitherward: Idé to the rock Hermaian
Of Lemnos: and a third great torch o’ the island
Zeus’ seat received in turn, the Athoan summit.
And--so upsoaring as to stride sea over,
The strong lamp-voyager, and all for joyance--
Did the gold-glorious splendor, any sun like,
Pass on....”

Anna Swanwick thus renders Æschylus’ “Agamemnon,” London, 1881, p. 13:

“For Priam’s city have the Argives won.

* * * * *

Hephaestos sending forth Idaian fire.
Hither through swift relays of courier flame....”

At page 193 of his “Agamemnon,” London, 1873, E. H. Plumptre refers to the system of posts or messengers which the Persian kings seem to have been first to organize, and which impressed the minds of both the Hebrews (Esther viii. 14) and the Greeks (Herod., viii. 98) by their regular transmission of the king’s edicts or of special news.

What of the passage from the celebrated patriarch Job (xxxviii. 35): “Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, ‘Here we are?’” (original Hebrew, “Behold us”). As has been remarked, this seems prophetic, when taken in connection with the electric telegraph.

The fire beacons are also alluded to by Plutarch in his Life of Quintus Sertorius; and Mardonius prepared fire signals to notify Xerxes, then at Sardis, of the second taking of Athens.

REFERENCES.--“Le Théâtre des Grecs,” P. Brumoy, Paris, 1820,
Vol. II. pp. 124–125; “Penny Encyc.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145;
Knight’s “Mechan. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092.

For a decidedly original explanation of the beacon fires, read the introduction to “The Agamemnon of Æschylus,” translated by A. W. Verrall, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, England. See, likewise, reference to Act of Scottish Parliament, 1455, c. 48, made by Walter Scott in a note to his “Lay of the Last Minstrel”; “Archeologia,” London, 1770, Vol. I. pp. i-7.

=B.C. 1068.=--In the obscure age of Codrus, the seventeenth and last king of Athens, at about the period of the “Return of the Heraclidae” (descendants of Heracles--Hercules) to the Peloponnesus, the Chinese had magnetic carriages, upon which the movable arm of the figure of a man continually pointed to the south, and which it is said served as a guide by which to find the way across the boundless grass plains of Tartary. Humboldt states, besides, that, even in the third century of our era, Chinese vessels navigated the Indian Ocean under the direction of magnetic needles pointing to the south, and that, at pages xxxviii-xlii, Vol. I. of his “Asie Centrale,” he has shown what advantages this means of topographical direction, as well as the early knowledge and application of the magnetic needle, gave the Chinese geographers over the Greeks and Romans, to whom, for instance, even the true direction of the Pyrenees and the Apennines always remained unknown.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 173,
also his “Examen Critique de l’histoire de la Géographie,” Vol.
III. p. 36; “Mœurs de Reg. Athen.,” lib. iii. cap. xi. For
Codrus and the Heraclidæ, consult: Chambers’ “Encycl.,” 1889,
Vol. III. p. 329 and Vol. V. 1890, p. 657; “Encycl. Britan.,”
9th ed., Edinburgh, Vol. VI. p. 107 and Vol. XI. p. 92; Hœfer,
“Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XI. p. 29.

=B.C. 1033–975.=--Solomon, King of Israel, son of King David and of Bathsheba, who, “in the Jewish scriptures, has the first place assigned to him among the wise men of the East,” is believed by many to have known the use of the compass. The Spanish Jesuit Pineda and Athanasius Kircher assert the same, and state that Solomon’s subjects employed it in their navigations. Others, notably Fuller, “Miscel.,” iv. cap. 19, and Levinus Lemnius, “De Occulta Naturae Miracula,” lib. iii, have even tried to prove that Solomon was the inventor of the compass, and that it was in his time used by the Syrians, Sidonians and Phœnicians, but the contrary has been shown by Henricus Kippingius in his “Antiq. Rom. de exped. Mar.,” lib. iii. cap. 6, as well as by Bochart, the geographer, in his “Géo. Sacr.,” lib. i. cap. 38.

REFERENCES.--Venanson, “Boussole,” Naples, 1808, p. 34; Enfield,
“History of Philosophy,” London, 1819, Vol. I. p. 40; Cavallo,
“Magnetism,” 1787, p. 48; Ronalds’ “Catal.,” 1880, articles
“Hirt” and “Michaelis,” pp. 246, 344.

=B.C. 1022.=--At this period the Chinese magnetic cars held a floating needle, the motions of which were communicated to the figure of a spirit whose outstretched hand always indicated the south. An account of these cars is given in the “Szuki” (Shi-ki), or “Historical Memoirs of Szu-ma-thsian” (Szu-matsien), which were written early in the second century B.C., and are justly considered the greatest of all Chinese historical works, containing, as they do, the history of China from the beginning of the empire to the reign of Hiao-wou-ti, of the Han dynasty.

REFERENCES.--“Les peuples Orientaux,” Léon de Rosny, Paris,
1886, pp. 10, 168, 240; Johnson’s “Encyclopædia,” Vol. I. p.
929; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” Vol. II. 1849, p. 628; Klaproth,
“Boussole,” 1834, p. 79, for further allusion to a passage in
the Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou, already referred to under date B.C.
2637.

=B.C. 1000–907.=--Homer, the greatest of epic poets, called the father of Greek poetry, and who, according to Enfield (“History of Philosophy,” Vol. I. p. 133), flourished before any other poet whose writings are extant, relates that the loadstone was used by the Greeks to direct navigation at the time of the siege of Troy.

The latter construction has been placed upon several passages in Homer, the most important being found in Book VIII of the “Odyssey.”

As this appears to be the first attributed allusion to the compass, it is deemed worth while to give herein several interpretations of the original Greek. The selections made are as follows:

“In wond’rous ships, self-mov’d, instinct with mind;
No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;
Like man intelligent, they plough the tides.

* * * * *

Though clouds and darkness veil th’ encumber’d sky,
Fearless thro’ darkness and thro’ clouds they fly.”

Alexander Pope, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1818, p. 135.

“...; for here
In our Phæacian ships no pilots are,
Nor rudders, as in ships of other lands.
Ours know the thoughts and the intents of men.
To them all cities and all fertile coasts
Inhabited by men are known; they cross
The great sea scudding fast, involved in mist
And darkness, with no fear of perishing
Or meeting harm.”

Wm. Cullen Bryant, “The Odyssey of Homer,” Boston, 1875, Vol. I.
p. 174.

“For unto us no pilots appertain,
Rudder nor helm which other barks obey.
These ruled by reason, their own course essay
Sparing men’s mind ...
Sail in a fearless scorn of scathe or overthrow.”

Philip Stanhope Worsley, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1861,
Vol. I. p. 198.

“For all unlike the ships of other men,
Nor helm nor steersman have our country’s barks,
But of themselves they know the thoughts of men;
... and wrapped in gloom and mist
O’er the broad ocean gulfs they hold their course
Fearless of loss and shipwreck....”

Earl of Carnarvon, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1886, p. 201.

“These marvellous ships, endued with human sense, and
anticipating the will of their masters, flit unseen over the
sea.”--“Homer’s Odyssey,” by W. W. Merry and James Riddell,
Oxford, 1886, Vol. I. p. 353, note.

“That our ships in their minds may know it when they bring thee
hither to hand,
Because amidst us Phæacians, our ships no helmsmen steer,
Nor with us is any rudder like other ships must bear,
But our keels know the minds of menfolk, and their will they
understand,

* * * * *

And therewith exceeding swiftly over the sea-gulf do they go,
In the mist and the cloud-rack hidden....”

“The Odyssey of Homer,” translated by Wm. Morris, London, 1887,
p. 145.

The afore-named construction is not, however, alluded to by Matthew Arnold in his well-known lectures given at Oxford, nor by the Right Hon. Wm. Ewart Gladstone either in his “Juventus Mundi” or throughout his very extensive “Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age.”

Sonnini tells us that as this period is about the same as that of the Chinese chronicles, it can scarcely be doubted that the knowledge of both the polarity of the needle and of the use of the compass for navigation date back 3000 years (Buffon, “Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. p. 304).

This ill accords, however, with the views of others who have concluded, perhaps rightly, that the Greeks, Romans, Tuscans and Phœnicians[3] were ignorant of the directive property of the magnet, from the fact that none of the writings, more especially of Theophrastus, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius and Pliny, make explicit allusion thereto.

REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 51; “Good
Words,” 1874, p. 70; Brumoy, “Théâtre des Grecs,” 1820, Vol. I.
p. 55; Pope’s translation of the “Iliad,” 1738, Vol. I. pp. 14,
20; Schaffner, “Telegraph Manual,” p. 19; also references under
both the A.D. 121 and the A.D. 265–419 dates.

=B.C. 600–580.=--Thales of Miletus, Ionia, one of the “seven wise men of Greece” (the others being Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolus and Periander), founder of the Ionic philosophy, and from whose school came Socrates, is said to have been the first to observe the electricity developed by friction in amber.

Thales, Theophrastus, Solinus, Priscian and Pliny, as well as other writers, Greek and Roman, mention the fact that when a vivifying heat is applied to amber it will attract straws, dried leaves, and other light bodies in the same way that a magnet attracts iron (“Photii Bibliotheca” Rothomagi, 1653, folio, col. 1040–1041, cod. 242).

Robert Boyle (“Philosophical Works,” London, 1738, Vol. I. p. 506, or London, 1744, Vol. III. p. 647) treats of different hypotheses advanced to solve the phenomena of electrical attraction, saying: “The first is that of the learned Nicholas Cabaeus (A.D. 1629), who thinks the drawing of light bodies by amber ... is caused by the steams which issue out of such bodies and discuss and expel the neighbouring air ... making small whirlwind.... Another is that of the eminent English philosopher, Sir Kenelm Digby (A.D. 1644), and embraced by the very learned Dr. Browne (A.D. 1646) and others, who believed that ... chafed amber is made to emit certain rays of unctuous steams, which, when they come to be a little cooled by the external air, are somewhat condensed ... carrying back with them those light bodies to which they happen to adhere at the time of their retraction.... Pierre Gassendi (A.D. 1632) thinks the same, and adds that these electrical rays ... get into the pores of a straw ... and by means of their decussation take the faster hold of it ... when they shrink back to the amber whence they were emitted ... Cartesius (Descartes, A.D. 1644) accounts for electrical attractions by the intervention of certain particles, shaped almost like small pieces of riband, which he supposes to be formed of this subtile matter harboured in the pores or crevices of glass.”

The ancients were acquainted with but two electrical bodies--amber (_electron_), which has given the denomination of the science; and _lyncurium_, which is either the tourmaline or the topaz (Dr. Davy, “Mem. Sir Humphry Davy,” 1836, Vol. I. p. 309). From a recent article treating of gems, the following is extracted: “The name of the precious stone inserted in the ring of Gyges has not been handed down to us, but it is probable that it was the topaz, whose wonders Philostratus recounts in the Life of Apollonius. An attribute of the sun and of fire, the ancients called it the _gold magnet_, as it was credited with the power of attracting that metal, indicating its veins, and discovering treasures. Heliodorus, in his story of Theagenes and Caricles, says that the topaz saves from fire all those who wear it, and that Caricles was preserved by a topaz from the fiery vengeance of Arsaces, Queen of Ethiopia. This stone was one of the first talismans that Theagenes possessed in Egypt. The topaz, at present, symbolizes Christian virtues--faith, justice, temperance, gentleness, clemency.”

REFERENCES.--“Greek Thinkers,” by Theodor Gomperz, translation
of L. Magnus, London 1901, p. 532; Zahn at A.D. 1696; Joannes
Ruellius, “De Natura Stirpium,” 1536, p. 125; Paul Tannery,
“Pour l’Histoire de la Science Hellène,” Paris, 1887, chap. iii.
pp. 52–80; Becquerel, “Traité Expérimental,” Paris, 1834, Vol.
I. p. 33; Pliny, “Natural History,” Bostock and Riley, 1858,
book 37, chap. xii. p. 403; Pline, “Histoire Naturelle,” 1778,
livre 37, chapitre iii.; Lardner, “Lectures,” 1859, Vol. I. p.
104; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 182; Poggendorff,
XI. p. 1088; Apuleius, Floridor, p. 361; Plato; Timæus, The
Locrian; “De Anima Mundi ...,” 12, 15; Pauli (Adrian), Dantzig,
1614; Ulysses Aldrovandus, “Musaeum Metallicum,” pp. 411–412;
Aurifabrum (Andreas), “Succini Historia,” ... Königsberg,
1551–1561; and, for the different names given to amber and the
magnet by the ancients, consult, more especially, the numerous
authorities cited by M. Th. Henri Martin (“Mém. présenté à
l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles Lettres,” première partie,
Vol. VI. pp. 297–329, 391–411, Paris, 1860); J. Matthias
Gessner, “De Electro Veterum” (Com. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gött., Vol.
III for 1753, p. 67); Louis Delaunay, “Minér. des Anciens,” Part
2, p. 125 (Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 540); Philip Jacob Hartmann,
in _Phil. Trans._, Vol. XXI. No. 248, pp. 5, 49, also in
Baddam’s Abridgments, Vol. III, first edition, 1739, pp. 322–366.

=B.C. 600.=--The Etruscans are known to have devoted themselves at this period to the study of electricity in an especial manner.[4] They are said to have attracted lightning by shooting arrows of metal into clouds which threatened thunder. Pliny even asserts that they had a secret method of not only “drawing it (the lightning) down” from the clouds, but of afterwards “turning it aside” in any desired direction. They recognized different sources of lightning, those coming from the sky (_a sideribus venientia_), which always struck obliquely, and others from the earth (_infera_, _terrena_), which rose perpendicularly. The Romans, on the other hand, recognized only two sorts, those of the day, attributed to Jupiter, and those of the night, attributed to Summanus (see Vassalli-Eandi at A.D. 1790).

This Vassalli-Eandi--like L. Fromondi--made special study of the very extensive scientific knowledge displayed by the ancients and, as shown in his “Conghietture ...” he concluded that they really possessed the secret of attracting and directing lightning. The above-named extracts concerning the Etruscans and Romans are made from the subjoined work of Mme. Blavatsky, wherein the following is likewise given.

Tradition says that Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, was initiated by the priests of the Etruscan divinities, and instructed by them in the secret of forcing Jupiter, the Thunderer, to descend upon earth. Salverte believes that before Franklin discovered his refined electricity, Numa had experimented with it most successfully, and that Tullus Hostilius, the successor of Numa, was the first victim of the dangerous “heavenly guest” recorded in history. Salverte remarks that Pliny makes use of expressions which seem to indicate two distinct processes; the one obtained thunder (_impetrare_), the other forced it to lightning (_cogere_). Tracing back the knowledge of thunder and lightning possessed by the Etruscan priests, we find that Tarchon, the founder of the theurgism of the former, desiring to preserve his house from lightning, surrounded it by a hedge of the white bryony, a climbing plant which has the property of averting thunderbolts. The Temple of Juno had its roofs covered with numerous pointed blades of swords. Ben David, says the author of “Occult Sciences,” has asserted that Moses (born about 1570 B.C.) possessed some knowledge of the phenomena of electricity. Prof. Hirt, of Berlin, is of this opinion. Michaelis remarks that there is no indication that lightning ever struck the Temple of Jerusalem during a thousand years: that, according to Josephus, a forest of points, of gold and very sharp, covered the roof of the temple, and that this roof communicated with the caverns in the hill by means of pipes in connection with the gilding which covered all the exterior of the building, in consequence of which the points would act as conductors. Salverte further asserts that in the days of Ctesias--Ktesias--India was acquainted with the use of conductors of lightning. This historian plainly states that iron placed at the bottom of a fountain, and made in the form of a sword, with the point upward, possessed, as soon as it was thus fixed in the ground, the property of averting storms and lightning.

“Ancient India, as described by Ktesias, the Knidian,” J. H. McCrindle, London, 1882, alludes, p. 68, to iron swords employed to ward off lightning. Reference is made to the _pantarbe_ at pp. 7–8, 69–70, and to the _elektron_ (amber) at pp. 20, 21, 23, 51, 52, 70, 86. See account of Ktesias in “Nouvelle Biogr. Génér.,” Vol. XII. pp. 568–571, and in “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. V. p. 614.

In his “Observations sur la Physique,” Vols. XXIV. pp. 321–323, XXV. pp. 297–303, XXVI. pp. 101–107, M. l’Abbé Rosier gives the correspondence between M. de Michaelis, Professor at Göttingen, and Mr. Lichtenberg, showing conclusively how the numerous points distributed over the surface of the roof of the Temple of Solomon effectively served as lightning conductors. Mr. Lichtenberg in addition shows that the bell tower located upon a hill at the country seat of Count Orsini de Rosenberg, was, during a period of several years, so repeatedly struck by lightning, with great loss of life, that divine service had to be suspended in the church. The tower was entirely destroyed in 1730 and soon after rebuilt, but it was struck as often as ten times during one prolonged storm, until finally a fifth successive attack, during the year 1778, compelled its demolition. For the third time the tower was reconstructed, and the Count placed a pointed conductor, since which time no damage has been sustained.

REFERENCES.--Mme. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” 1877, Vol. I. pp.
142, 457, 458, 527, 528, and her references to Ovid, “Fast,”
lib. iii. v. 285–346; Titus Livius, lib. i. cap. 31; Pliny,
“Hist. Nat.,” lib. ii. cap. 53 and lib. xxviii. cap. 2; Lucius
Calp, Piso; Columella, lib. x. v. 346, etc.; La Boissière,
“Notice sur les Travaux de l’Académie du Gard,” part I. pp.
304–314; “Bell. Jud. adv. Roman,” lib. v. cap. 14; “Magas. Sc.
de Göttingen,” 3^e année 5^e cahier; Ktesias, in “India ap.
Photum. Bibl. Cod.,” 72. See also, De La Rive, “Electricity,”
London, 1858, Vol. III, chap. ii. p. 90; “Encycl. Brit.,” 8th
ed., article “Electricity”; Lardner, “Lectures,” II. p. 99;
Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 502–504; Boccalini,
“Parnassus,” Century I. chap. xlvi. alluded to at p. 24, Vol.
I. of Miller’s “Retrospect”; Gouget, “Origin of Laws,” Vol.
III. book 3; Themistius, Oratio 27, p. 337; “Agathias Myrenaeus
de rebus gestis Justiniani,” lib. v. p. 151; Dutens, “Origine
des découvertes ...”; “Gentleman’s Magazine” for July 1785, p.
522; Falconer, “Mem. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester,” Vol
III. p. 278; “Sc. Amer.,” No. 7. p. 99; E. Salverte, “Phil. of
Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chaps. viii. and ix.; “Fraser’s Magazine”
for 1839; H. Martin, Paris, 1865–6; P. F. von Dietrich, Berlin,
1784.

=B.C. 588.=--The earliest reliable record of messages transmitted by the _sign of fire_ is to be found in the book of Jeremiah, vi. 1: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north and great destruction.”

REFERENCES.--Turnbull, “Electro-magnetic Telegraph,” 1853, p.
17; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092; Penny and other
Encyclopædias.

=B.C. 341.=--Aristotle, Greek philosopher, says (“Hist. of Anim.,” IX. 37) that the electrical _torpedo_ causes or produces a torpor upon those fishes it is about to seize, and, having by that means got them into its mouth, feeds upon them. The _torpedo_ is likewise alluded to, notably by (Claudius) Plutarch, the celebrated Greek moralist, by Dioscorides, Pedacius, Greek botanist, referred to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i, ii, and xiv; by Galen, illustrious Roman physician, who is also frequently alluded to in “De Magnete,” and by Claudius Claudian, Latin poet, who flourished at the commencement of the fifth century. Oppian describes (“Oppian’s Halieuticks of the nature of fishes and fishing of the ancients in five books,” lib. ii. v. 56, etc., also lib. iii. v. 149) the organs by which the animal produces the above effect, and Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,”