NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 103 



thirty years, two only had been produced by this agency. During a century, 

 only three persons were killed by lightning in Gottingen, and two in Halle. 

 Comparing these numbers with the total deaths from this cause, and with the 

 fact that twenty-five per cent, of all happen under trees, he holds it reason- 

 able to conclude " that lightning finds more victims in open country than in 

 cities." Another " most curious phenomenon, beyond contradiction, is the 

 tendency it has to strike the same places and the same edifices at different 

 epochs." Of this, Dr. Boudin produces several illustrations, and quotes M. 

 Poullet in support and explanation. 



With regard to the frequency of accidents by lightning, fatal to human life 

 in France, he tells us that from 1835 to 1832, inclusive, 1308 persons were 

 killed. 



M. Boudin thinks that the persons injured are at least twice as numerous 

 as those killed. Some United States statistics show the injured to be to the 

 killed as five to one. Many more men than women are killed, and not in 

 France only, but also, though not in so marked a proportion, in Sweden 

 (1815 to 1840), and in England (1838 and 1839). He seems to think that this is 

 not explained by the greater exposure of men in the fields ; but still he does 

 not think we are warranted in concluding "that, all things being equal, 

 woman runs less danger than man; " but he considers the question as 

 " worthy of being submitted to the test of observation." And he quotes the 

 following peculiar passage from Arago, declining, however, to " maintain its 

 rigorous exactitude " : 



" In two conditions altogether alike," says Arago, " one man, by the nature 

 of his constitution, runs more danger than another. There exist persons 

 who arrest abruptly the communication of electricity, and do not feel the 

 shock, even when they occupy the second place in the file. These persons, 

 by exception, are not conductors of the electric fluid. Exceptionally, then, 

 we must rank them amongst non-conducting bodies, which lightning respects, 

 or which, at least, it strikes rarely. Differences so marked cannot exist, with- 

 out there being also shades of difference; but every degree of conductibility 

 corresponds, during the storm, to a certain measure of danger. The man 

 who is as conducting as metal will be as often struck as metal; the man who 

 interrupts the communication to the chain will scarce have more to fear than 

 if he were glass or resin. Between these limits there will be found individuals 

 whom the lightning will strike as readily as wood or stone. Thus, in the 

 phenomena of thunder, all does not depend on the place which a man occu- 

 pies; the physical constitution of the man plays also a certain part." 



As one would expect, " the configuration of the soil, and its mountainous 

 character," exercise an influence on the frequency of accidents, which, for 

 instance, In proportion to the population, are much rarer in the departments 

 of the Eure and Seine than in those of the Dordogne, Lozere, High Loire, 

 and Low and High Alps. Less danger is run in the house than in the fields, 

 and in towns than in the country. 



The effects of lightning on man he makes either curative of preexisting 

 affections, productive of wounds or injuries, or productive of death. The 

 injuries it may produce seem to be very varied. 



To the peculiar images, said to have been observed on the bodies of some 

 persons killed by lightning, he gives the name of Keraunographic images, 

 and he relates some of the most singular instances of it on record, giving the 

 sources, which are not always the most reliable. 



