The President of Section A, Professor Fitzgerald, in bringing the discussion to a close, observed that one result of this meeting would be to give a new interest to the phenomena of static electricity and its practical applications. He was inclined himself to think that the experiments of Professor Lodge were not quite analogous to the case of a flash of lightning. In comparing the discharge of a Leyden jar with a flash of lightning they should look for the analogy, not so much in the external discharge through a series of conductors, but rather, as Mr. Preece had observed, in the bursting of the glass between the two coatings of the jar. As regarded the oscillations in a Leyden jar discharge, he did not think such oscillations were at all necessary to account for the phenomena observed in the experiments. Many of the results which Professor Lodge seemed to think would require some millions of oscillations per second would be produced by a single discharge lasting for a millionth of a second. Improvements, perhaps, were possible in our present system of lightning conductors, but practical experience had shown, however we might reason on the matter, that, on the whole, lightning conductors had been a great protection to mankind from the dangers of lightning. =Summary.=--I will now try to sum up the results of this interesting discussion, and state briefly the conclusions which, as it seems to me, may be deduced from it. First, I would remind my readers that a lightning rod has two functions to fulfill. Its first function is to promote a gradual, but rapid, discharge of electricity according as it is developed, and thus to prevent such an accumulation as would lead to a flash of lightning. Its second function is to convey the flash of lightning, when it does come, harmless to the earth. Now, the new views advanced by Professor Lodge in no way impugn the efficiency of lightning rods as regards their first function; and it is evident that the greater the number of lightning rods distributed over a given area, the more perfectly will this function be fulfilled. This is a point of great practical importance which seemed to me, in some degree, lost sight of during the progress of the discussion. Secondly, it was practically admitted by the highest authorities that the experiments and reasoning of Professor Lodge afford good grounds for reconsidering the received theory of lightning conductors as regards their second function--that of carrying the lightning flash harmless to the earth. But there was undoubtedly a general feeling that it would be rash to set aside, all at once, the received theory on the strength of laboratory experiments made under conditions widely different from those which actually exist in a lightning discharge. Experiments are wanted on a larger scale; and, if possible, experiments with lightning rods themselves.