It was the same in most countries of southern and central Europe. Even in Geneva, famous for the enlightenment of its citizens, the populace made an attempt to pull down the first lightning conductor. It was erected, in the summer of 1771, by the celebrated naturalist, Professor Horace de Saussure, over his own house, after directions furnished by Dr. Franklin. But notwithstanding that the professor was himself highly respected, his lightning conductor created general abhorrence, and to appease it he found it necessary to issue a public address or ‘manifesto,’ as he called it, to his fellow-citizens. The address, dated November 21, 1771, was strangely characteristic of the times. ‘I hear with regret,’ Professor de Saussure declared, ‘that the conductor which I have placed over my house to protect it against lightning, as well as to observe, occasionally, the electricity of the clouds, has spread terror among many persons, who seem to fear that by this means I draw upon the heads of others those dangers from which I myself wish to escape. Now, I beg you to believe that I would never have decided upon erecting this apparatus, if I had not been fully persuaded both of its harmlessness and its utility. There is no possibility of its causing damage to my own house, or of doing harm to others. All those who are now labouring under fear would be precisely of the same opinion, if they had entered upon the same inquiries to which I am called in the course of my studies.’ After which the professor goes on minutely to describe the ‘electric conductor,’ which he had been bold enough to place over his house, dwelling upon the fact of its having protected, as he believed, already his own residence from being struck by lightning, and of having been found, likewise, universally efficacious in the same manner in ‘the English colonies of North America.’ The citizens of Geneva, much given to reasoning, earnestly read and studied the ‘manifesto’ of Professor de Saussure, and the consequence was, not only that he was spared further attacks and reproaches, but that there arose soon over the churches and houses of the town some hundreds of lightning conductors.