Danger Jrom Lighiiiing, 119 



of course much more considerable. In December 1806, du- 

 ring a single storm, the lightning destroyed, in whole or in 

 part, the steeples of St Martin at Vitre^ of Erbre, of Croisiltes, 

 and of Etrelles. On the 11th of July 1807, the steeple of St 

 Martin^ was again struck, and five days before the lightning 

 had fallen at la Guerche, and around that city, within the 

 space of a league in different directions, upon ten chapels and 

 other edifices. At Paris, on the night between the 7th and 8th 

 of August 1807, the lightning fell upon the sign-post of a shop 

 in the Rue de Tliionville, upon a house near la Halle, upon a 

 reflector of a lamp of the Rue de Perpignan, in the Rue aux 

 FSves, at Vaugirard, and at Pass?/. On the 14th May 1806, we 

 find it damaging a joiner's workshop in the Rue Caumartin ; 

 on the 26th June 1807, it injured nine portions of a house of 

 Aubervilliers ; on the 29th of August 1808, it struck a public- 

 house near the Barriere des Gobelins, and killed and wounded 

 many ; near the Barriere Mant-marire, it fell upon another 

 public-house filled with people, many of whom were knocked 

 down in a state of insensibility ; on the 14th of February 1809) 

 it knocked to pieces a wind-mill, situated on the road to St 

 Denis ; — on the 29th of June 1810, it did much damage to a 

 house in the Rue Aumaire ; — .next day it broke and scattered 

 about whatever it encountered in a house in the Rue Popeliniere ; 

 and on the 3d of August 181 1 , it fell upon a house at the Barriere 

 de Pantin, and wounded many individuals. 



On the 11th of January 1815, during a thunder-storm which 

 embraced the space comprehended between the Northern Ocean 

 and the Rhenish provinces, the lightning fell upon twelve 

 steeples dispersed over this great extent of country, set fire to 

 many, and greatly injured others. In leaving this recapitula- 

 tion of recorded facts, it is scarcely necessary, I imagine, to re- 

 mark that I believe it very far indeed from being complete. 

 Every one indeed will recognise that it reaches only the mini- 

 mum limits of the subject. 



The necessity there is for protecting buildings against light- 

 ning, should be measured by the number of those which are 

 annually struck by it, and also by the extent and importance of 

 the damage which it carries in its train. Three or four citations 

 will shew the importance of this last-mentioned consideration. 



