8.--Remark 1.--It is now proved beyond all questions, that the electrical discharge never leaves perfect conducting lines of small resistance, in order to pass out upon bad conducting circuits, in which the resistance is very great, that is an established law of nature; hence a stroke of Lightning upon such conducting lines will be confined to the Conductors as constituting a line of discharge of less resistance than any other line of discharge through the building, which can be assigned. The apprehension of “Lateral Discharge” therefore, from the Conductor, is quite absurd; and is not countenanced by any fact whatever; if any doubt could possibly exist, it would be now most completely set at rest by the experience of the permanent Conductors, applied to the masts of Her Majesty’s ships. In very many instances furious discharges of Lightning have fallen on the masts with a crash as if the ship’s broadside had been fired, and the solid point aloft has been found melted; in all these cases electrical discharge robbed by the Conductor of its explosive violence, has traversed the line of action to the sea, through the ship, and through the copper bolts, driven through the ship’s solid timbers, without the least damage to the surrounding masses, whether metallic, as in the case of the massive iron hoops on the lower masts, or not. Persons have either been close by or actually leaning against the Conductors at the time, without experiencing any ill consequence. 9.--Remark 2.--It has also been incontestably shown, that metallic bodies have not any specific attractive force or affinity for the matter of Lightning; metals are as little attractive of lightning as wood or stone. All matter is equally indifferent to Electricity so far as regards a specific attraction, hence the idea that metals attract or invite Lightning is a popular but very unlearned error contradicted by the most satisfactory evidence, and the whole course of experience; in short, we find that Lightning falls indiscriminately upon trees, rocks, and buildings, whether the buildings have metals about them or not.