226 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



people yearly struck by lightning in France averages 200. The number of people killed by 

 lightning between the years 1835 and 1852 is no less than 1308; the number struck, but not 

 fatally, is about three to one of the number killed. Of the number struck, there were nearly 

 three men to one woman. The region where the lightning had been most fatal is the central 

 plateau of France, comprising the departments of Cantal, 'Puy-de-Dome, and other depart- 

 ments which are mountainous or present elevated ground. The months during which people 

 are the least exposed to the fatal effects of lightning are the coldest months of the year viz. 

 November, December, January, and February. Out of 103 people struck, 4 were struck in 

 March, 6 in April, 8 in May, 22 in June, 13 in July, 19 in August, 14 in September, and 15 

 in October. One-fourth of the people who have been struck may trace the misfortune to their 

 own imprudence, in taking shelter under trees, which attract the electric fluid. The greatest 

 number of people killed by a single flash of lightning does not exceed eight or nine. M. Boudin 

 called attention to two curious facts in connection with this subject. The first was, that dead 

 men, struck by lightning, had been found in exactly the upright position they held when 

 killed ; the second was, that other bodies bore upon them faint impressions of outward objects, 

 probably somewhat resembling photographic shadows. Animals, however, are much more 

 exposed to the influences of lightning than men, and suffer more by its destructive properties. 

 More than once a single flash of lightning has destroyed an entire flock of sheep, and, accord- 

 ing to M. D'Abbadie, flocks of 2000 in Ethiopia. 



Before the application of lightning-conductors, English ships experienced losses annually 

 by the electric fluid estimated at from 1000 to 1400; but since their application, such 

 losses are no longer heard of, although some pretend to deny the efficacy of the lightning-rod. 



Effect of Flowers on the Air of Rooms. 



PROF. GRAY writes to a correspondent of the "Country Gentleman" the following informa- 

 tion relative to the effect of plants on the nature of the air of rooms. Prof. Gray says 



"As to their foliage affecting the air, plants practically neither benefit nor injure the 

 air of rooms the amount of oxygen they increase in daylight, or that of carbonic acid they 

 increase by night, not being large enough, relatively, to make a sensible difference to an indi- 

 vidual in the room. For instance, the amount of carbonic acid a dozen potted shrubs would 

 exhale in a single night would be less than what a child sleeping in the room would exhale 

 in the same time, or a small night-lamp burning would exhale, and this, in the actual open 

 state of our apartments, would be wholly unimportant as affecting health. The real objection 

 to plants in sleeping apartments are owing 



1st. To the dampness they might cause from exhalation or evaporation, as they must be 

 kept moist; and 2d, and chiefly, from the unpleasant effects of the odors of most blossoms 

 in close rooms. The unpleasant effects here are owing to the volatile oil, etc. in the aroma, 

 and not to the carbonic acid; for though flowers do give out carbonic acid gas, day or night, 

 yet this is not copious enough, by its accumulations for a night, to do the least damage. 



Very odorous flowers often prove injurious in a close room on account of their exhalations, 

 which contain volatile oils and other principles. I have known persons made ill by sitting 

 under a flowering Pittosporum, in an ordinary room in the day-time. At night it is generally 

 worse, both on account of the room being closed, and from the fact that some flowers exhale 

 their odors most abundantly at night. 



Epochs of Cold and Warm Seasons. 



DR. DREW, of England, in a recent work on meteorology, furnishes a diagram and series of 

 tables which seem to show that we shall not experience another winter of equal severity to 

 the last for the next eight or ten years. This conclusion is arrived at by a comparison of the 

 mean annual temperature recorded since the year 1771, and the result when tabled may be 

 expressed in the following manner: 



From the years named in the left-hand column, when the temperature fell to a minimum, it 



