Many wonderful and destructive effects come from these lightning discharges and many lives are lost every year from this cause. I do not suppose it is possible to be on one's guard continually, but many lives are needlessly lost either from ignorance or carelessness. Although there is a just prejudice against lightning-rods as ordinarily constructed, it is still just as possible to protect your house and its inmates from the destroying effects of lightning as from rain. If, for instance, we lived in metal houses that had perfect contact all round them with moist earth, or better, with a water-pipe that has a large surface contact with the earth, the lightning would never hurt the house or the inmates. In such a case you simply carry the surface of the earth to the top of your house, electrically speaking, and neutralization takes place there in case the lightning strikes the house. A house that is heated with hot water can easily be made lightning-proof by a little work at the top and bottom of the heating system. All the heavy metal of the house should be a part of the lightning-rod. Points should be erected at the chimneys, and if there is a metal roof they should be connected with it. Then connect the roof with rods from several points with the ground. Here is where most rods fail. The ground connection is not sufficient. The earth is a poor conductor, and we have to make up by having a large metal surface in contact with it. It is best to have the rod connected with the water pipe, if there is one, and have it connected with metal running all around the house as low down as the bottom of the cellar, for sometimes there is an upward stroke, and you never can tell where it is coming up. If you have a heating system it should be thoroughly grounded and the top pipe connected with the rods at the chimneys. These rods need not be insulated as is the usual practice. If you are outdoors during a thunder-storm never get under a tree, but if you are twenty or thirty feet away it may save your life, because, if it comes near enough to strike you, it will probably take the tree in preference. It seeks the earth by the easiest passage. An oil-tank and a barn are dangerous places, if the one has oil in it and the other is filled with hay and grain. A column of gas is rising that acts as a conductor for lightning. Of course if the barn is properly protected with rods it will be safe. Sometimes a cloud is so heavily charged that the lightning comes down like an avalanche, and in such a case the rods must have great capacity and be close together to fully protect a building.