of a knowlege of nature and its laws to our well-being; though, like the great inventions of the mariner's compass and of gunpowder, they may have stood, in their origin, unconnected with more general views. They are rather to be looked upon as the spontaneous produce of a territory essentially fertile, than as forming part of the succession of harvests which the same bountiful soil, diligently cultivated, is capable of yielding. The history of iodine above related affords, however, a perfect specimen of the manner in which a knowledge of natural properties and laws, collected from facts having no reference to the object to which they have been subsequently applied, enables us to set in array the resources of nature against herself; and deliberately, of afore-thought, to devise remedies against the dangers and inconveniences which beset us. In this view we might instance, too, the conductor, which, in countries where thunder-storms are more frequent and violent than in our own, and at sea (where they are attended with peculiar danger, both from the greater probability of accident, and its more terrible consequences when it does occur,) forms a most real and efficient preservative against the effects of lightning[1]:—the safety-lamp, which enables us to walk with light and
- ↑ Throughout France the conductor is recognised as a most valuable and useful instrument; and in those parts of Germany where thunder-storms are still more common and tremendous they are become nearly universal. In Munich there is hardly a modern house unprovided with them, and of a much better construction than ours—several copper wires twisted into a rope.
