On the fifth of June, 1879, the Church of Saint Marie, Rugby, was struck by lightning and set on fire, and narrowly escaped being burned to the ground. A number of workmen were engaged on that day in repairing the spire of the church. About three o’clock they saw a dense black cloud approaching, and they came down to take shelter within the building. In a few minutes they heard a terrific crash just overhead; at the same moment the gas was lighted under the organ loft and the woodwork was set in a blaze. The men soon succeeded in putting out the fire, and the church escaped with very little damage. Now, in this case there was no reason to suppose that the lightning conductor was in any way defective. But about half-way up the spire there was a peal of eight bells. Attached to these bells were iron wires, about the eighth of an inch in diameter, leading from the clappers down to the organ-loft, where they came within a short distance of a gas-pipe fixed in the wall. It would seem that a great part of the discharge was carried safely to earth by the lightning conductor. But a part branched off at the bells in the spire, descended by the iron wires, and forced its way into the organ loft, to reach the network of gas-pipes, through which it passed down to the earth, melting the soft leaden gas-pipe in its course and lighting the gas. The remedy for this danger is obvious. All large masses of metal used in the structure of a building--the leads and gutters of the roof, the cast-iron down-pipes, the iron gas and water mains--should be put in good metallic connection with the lightning conductor, and, as far as may be, with one another. Connected in this way they furnish a continuous and effective line of conductors leading safely down to earth; and, instead of being a dangerous rival, they become a useful auxiliary to the lightning rod. I would observe, however, that the lightning conductor ought not to be connected directly with the soft leaden pipes which are commonly employed to convey gas and water to the several parts of a building. Such pipes, as we have seen, are liable to be melted when any considerable part of the lightning discharge passes through them; and thus much harm might be done, and the building might even be set on fire by the lighting of the gas. Every good end will be attained if the conductor is put in metallic connection with the iron gas and water _mains_ either inside or outside the building.