Danger from Lightning. 443 



of those present, and more or less wounded all the others.* On the 18th of 

 February 1770, a single thunderbolt threw to the ground, without their 

 knowledge, all the inhabitants of Keverne in Cornwall, who were assem- 

 bled in their parish church during their Sunday service. In the year 

 1808, the lightning fell twice in rapid succession upon 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 ; of 400 people who were present it killed two 

 and wounded ten.^ On the 11th of July 1819, the lightning fell during 

 the service, upon the Church of Chdteauneuf-les-Moutiers, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Digne, Department of the Lower Alps, and killed nine in- 

 dividuals on the spot, and more or less wounded eighty-two. The same 

 flash killed in the middle of a stable, close to the building, five sheep 

 and a mare. 



In spite of these citations, 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 thun- 

 ders, produce involuntary nervous effects which the strongest organiza- 

 tions 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, throughout the year is, on the con- 

 trary, very great ; that nothing distinguishes the harmless flashes from 

 the others ; and that however insignificant in reality the danger may 

 truly be, it seems to be increased by the considerable number of its ap- 

 parent renewals. This consideration will appear clearer if, returning to 

 our term of comparison, I suppose that at the moment when a work- 

 man, 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, 



* Lightning often occasions extensive fires ; on this occasion it was the reverse, for it put 

 out all the lights. 



t On this occasion, the lightning also melted ear-rings and watch-keys ; it likewise cleaved 

 diamonds, and this without wounding in the slightest degree those who wore these several 

 articles. 



3 M 



