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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



centre of the large towns of Europe, people, it would appear, are very 

 little exposed. Lichtenberg says that during half a century, five men only 

 were seriously struck with lightning in the town of Gottingen, and of 

 these only three died. In Halle a single individual only had been killed 

 by lightning between 1609 and 1825, or in more than two centuries. In 

 Paris there had not been a single death by lightning notified for a great 

 number of years. But, on the other hand, instances are not wanting of 

 persons having been killed in towns. Thus, on the night between the 

 26th and 27th of July 1759, a flash of lightning struck the theatre of the 

 town of Feltra. It killed a great number of those present, and more or 

 less wounded all the others. On the 18th of February 1770, a single 

 thunderbolt threw to the ground all the inhabitants of Keverne in Corn- 

 wall who were assembled in the parish church. In 1808, lightning fell 

 twice in rapid succession on the inn of the town of Capelle in Breisgau, 

 and killed four persons, and wounded a great many more. On the 20th 

 of March 1784, the lightning struck the theatre at Mantua, killed two and 

 wounded ten of four hundred persons present. 



Yet, says M. Arago, no one will doubt me when I affirm that to each 

 of the inhabitants of Paris, or any other city, the danger of being struck 

 with lightning is less than that of being killed in the street by the fall of a 

 workman from a roof, or of a chimney-can, or flower-pot. There is no 

 one, I believe, who, in starting in the morning, dwells upon the idea that 

 a workman, or chimney, or flower-pot, will fall on his head. If, then, 

 fear reasoned, we should not be more uneasy during a thunder-storm 

 which lasted for a whole day. For the acquittal of our understandings, 

 however, it ought to be added, that the vivid and sudden flashes which 

 announce the lightning and its resounding thunders, produce involuntary 

 nervous effects, which the strongest frames cannot always resist. It 

 ought also to be stated, that if the descent of true thunderbolts is but rare, 

 the total number of strokes of lightning of one kind and another through- 

 out the year is, on the contrary, very great ; that nothing distinguishes 

 the harmless flashes from the others ; and that, however insignificant, 

 in reality, the danger may be, it seems to be increased by the great number 

 of its apparent renewals. This consideration will appear clearer if, return. 

 ing to our term of comparison, I suppose that at the moment when a 

 workman, or chimney, or flower-pot, was about to fall from a roof or a 

 window, a very loud detonation were to announce the event throughout 

 the whole extent of the city, every one might then conceive, many times 

 a day, that he was precisely in the street where the accident was to hap- 

 pen, and his alarm, without being at all better founded, would become 

 conceivable. 



Were we to rely upon general belief, there is much greater danger in 

 villages than in large towns, and theoretical considerations would tend to 

 confirm this opinion ; but on this subject facts are wanting. But if few 

 persons perish from thunder-storms in the heart of our towns, the number 

 of houses that are struck and seriously injured is great. During the single 

 night of the 14th and 15th April 1718, the lightning struck twenty-four 

 steeples in the space comprehended between Landernau and St Pol-de- 

 Leon, along the coast of Brittany. On the night of the 25th and 26th 

 of April 1760, the lightning fell three times, in the short interval of 

 twenty minutes, upon the chapel and other buildings of the Abbey of the 

 Notre-Dame-de-Ham. On the morning of the 17th of September 1772, 

 it injured four different buildings in Padua. In December 1773, the 

 lightning over London, nearly at the same moment, struck the steeple of 

 St Michael's, the obelisk in St George's Fields, the New Bridewell, a 

 house in Lambeth, another house near Vauxhall, and a great number of 

 other places very distant from each other, not omitting a Dutch vessel 

 near the Tower. A learned German found in the year 1783, that within 

 the space of thirty-three years, lightning had struck 386 steeples, and had 

 killed 121 ringers. 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 dis- 

 persed over this great extent of country, set fire to many, and greatly in- 

 jured others. 



The necessity there is for protecting buildings against lightning 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. In 1817, lightning set fire to the woodwork which terminated the 

 steeple of St Mark at Venice, and the whole was consumed. This 

 pyramid was rebuilt, but another thunder-storm reduced it to ashes on 

 the 12th of August 1489. On the 20th of May 1711, a single thunder- 

 bolt greatly damaged the principal tower of the town of Berne, and devas- 

 tated nine houses. On the 23d of April 1745, the pyramid of St Mark, 

 which on this occasion was built of stone, received a violent stroke of 

 lightning. On the night of the 25th and 26th April 1760, three strokes 

 of lightning set fire to the church of Notre-Dame of Ham, and completely 

 destroyed it. On the morning of the 18th of August 1769, lightning 

 fell upon the Tower of St Nazaire at Brescia, which stood upon a maga- 

 zine containing 2,076,000 pounds of gunpowder. This vast mass ignited 

 in a moment, in consequence of which the sixth part of the buildings in 



that city were overturned, the rest much shaken, and 3000 persons 

 killed. Damage to an immense extent has also been committed on ship. 

 ping. For example, in fifteen months in 1829 and 1830, five ships of the 

 British Royal Navy were struck in the Mediterranean, and suffered greatly 

 in the rigging. The British ship Resistance, of forty-four guns, and the 

 Lynx, entirely disappeared during a severe thunder-storm, in a convoy of 

 which they formed a part. The Logan of New York, of 420 tons, and 

 L. 20,000 value, was entirely consumed, and the Hannibal of Boston 

 shared the same fate in 1824. 



The ancients believed that lightning never penetrates farther into the 

 earth than five feet. Hence the majority of caverns were considered by 

 them as secure asylums, and the Emperor Augustus, when a thunder- 

 storm was anticipated, used to retire to a low and vaulted retreat. But 

 no one, even at the present day, knows at what depth there is perfect se- 

 curity from descending lightning, and still less from ascending. In former 

 times also it was generally thought that persons who ensconced them- 

 selves in their beds had nothing to fear from lightning j but this opinion 

 is refuted by facts. The Romans considered the skin of the seal a pre- 

 servative against lightning ; the people of the Cevennes collected the 

 cast skins of snakes for the same purpose. But although these may be 

 useless, it appears that the choice of clothing is not altogether a matter 

 of indifference, for numerous instances might be adduced in which it would 

 seem that some individuals appear to have been preserved, and others 

 struck, according as they wore particular garments, manufactured of par- 

 ticular materials ; and wax-cloths, and silk and woollen stuffs, have been 

 considered as less permeable to lightning than linen. It even appears 

 that animals may be more or less severely injured in different parts of the 

 body, according to the colour of their hair. Thus in an Ox and a Horse 

 struck by lightning, the hair was destroyed on the white parts only. It' 

 has been supposed that some trees, as the laurel, are not liable to be 

 struck by lightning, but this opinion also has been found to be incor- 

 rect. 



Many persons have been struck in the open country, but the danger is 

 still greater under trees. It has been generally admitted, that lightning 

 always respects glass, but there are facts which disprove this also. Num- 

 berless examples show that lightning never strikes individuals, without 

 more particularly attacking any metals which they may have about them. 

 It may therefore be admitted that such objects increase the danger of being 

 struck; and none will deny this conclusion, if the question refers to a 

 large mass of metal, but the opinion is attended with more difficulty in 

 reference to those trifling metallic articles which often form a part of our 

 common dress. On the whole, however, it is preferable during a thun- 

 der-storm to have no metal about one. But it may be asked, is it of the 

 slightest consequence to regard the increase of danger which a watch, or 

 buckles, or the money in one's purse, or which the wires, chains, and 

 pins in a lady's dress, produce ? To this question no general answer can 

 be given ; for every one will regard it through his own prepossessions, and 

 will more or less be determined by the apprehensions with which the 

 meteor inspires him. 



( To be continued.') 



The White Birch The beautiful laminae of the silken bark were 



used by the ancients as a papyrus for writing tablets before the invention 

 of paper ; and, according to Pliny and Plutarch, the works composed by 

 Numa were discovered in the tomb in a legible state four hundred years 

 after his interment. If a hole be bored in the tree when the sap rises in 

 the spring, a sweet liquor distils from it, which, properly fermented, with 

 the addition of sugar, makes a pleasant wine. This process is performed 

 in March, and four or five punctures may be made in a large tree, which 

 has been ascertained to yield nearly its weight of sap, and that without 

 material injury. When the weather changes from warm to cold, Birch 

 trees cease to bleed, and on returning warmth begin again. In Northum- 

 berland, fishermen put the bituminous bark into a cleft stick, and, light- 

 ing it, use it for fishing in the night, and spear the fish attracted by the 

 light. The portable canoes of the North American Indians are commonly 

 constructed with this material, and on the banks of the lakes of the north 

 of Europe are produced those enormous Birch trees, the bark of a single 

 one of which is sufficient to form a large canoe. The economical uses of 

 the different parts of this tree are almost endless, and to the inhabitants 

 of the northern climes it is invaluable T. B. Hall, in the Naturalist. 



Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietor, at the Office, No. 13, Hill Street. 

 London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Glasgow and the West of 

 Scotland: John Smith and Son; and John Macleod. Dublin: George 

 Young. Paris: J. B. Eailliere, Kuede l'Ecole de Medecine, No. 13 bis. 



THE EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY. 



