VOL. XXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 437 



and rubbing equally towards the crown ; and you will easily see in the water 

 how the pulp separates from the fibres, which being most tender towards the 

 extremities, it is there the greatest care is to be taken. No instrument is of 

 any use in this operation, except last of all a penknife to separate the pulp 

 sticking to the core. In order to see how the operation advances, you may 

 fling away the muddy water from time to time, and pour on clean. All being 

 separated, the skeleton is to be preserved in spirits of wine rectified. The same 

 is to be observed with regard to apples, plums, peaches, and the like. 



Turnips and other roots, that have woody fibres or ribs, must be boiled with- 

 out paring, till they grow soft, and the pulp comes off. Not only many sorts 

 of roots, but also the barks of several trees may be thus reduced into skeletons, 

 presenting rare and curious views of vegetables. 



Some Effects of Thunder and Lightning in Carmarthenshire. By Mr. Evan 

 Davies. N° 4l6, p. 444. 



Dec. 6, 1729, in the afternoon, there happened terrible thunder and light- 

 ning, which alarmed the whole neighbourhood ; and about 4 o'clock, as a wo- 

 man was carrying a pail of water into the house, there broke such a violent clap 

 of thunder, that she and 3 of her children were very surprisingly struck, 

 and instantly deprived of their senses, so that they lay miserable monuments of 

 the terrible shock ; and it seems they lay weltering in their blood, before they 

 recovered, and were able to creep to the bed, till the next neighbour happened 

 to come in (the husband being then abroad at his day-labour) to assist them. 

 The lightning it seems struck at the east end, near the foundation, into the 

 hearth, and split in two a thick stone of about half a yard in breadth beyond 

 the fire, and shattered one half into small splinters, which shot into their flesh, 

 and did the most hurt. About 24 or more of those stones were, from time to 

 time, taken out of their wounds. It appears, that afterwards it forced its way 

 out through the wall on the south side, within the compass of the hearth, when 

 it made a terrible breach from top to bottom, and removed the stones from the 

 foundation, making a deep hole perpendicular in the earth, that one might 

 thrust in a staff to the top. The partitions in the house were moved out ot 

 their place ; and a chest full of corn forced down towards the door, some yards 

 from the place where it stood. The bucket the woman had in her hand, and 

 other wooden vessels in the house, were all or most of them shattered, dishes 

 and spoons, &c. blown ofF, and after some days, found and gathered in the 

 garden, on the north side of the house, split and broken ; and many more dis- 

 orders were committed. 



