Abstract: We investigate in this article the thermal conductivity of array of cylinders embedded in a homogeneous matrix. Using Green's function, we confirm that the method invented by Rayleigh can be generalized to deal with thermal property of these systems. A technique for calculating effective thermal conductivities of these systems is proposed. As an example, we consider a system with square symmetry, and a neat formula for effective thermal conductivity is derived. We show that the method also includes the proof of Keller theorem.