444 Danger from Lightning. 



that he was precisely in the street where the accident was to happen ; 

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

 conceivable. 



I have been treating above of the accidents which occur in the middle 

 of great towns. Were we to rely upon general belief, there is much 

 greater danger in villages, and in the open country. Theoretical 

 considerations to which the review I am now taking forbids me to 

 advert, would tend to confirm this opinion. As for facts again, I see 

 not how it is possible to invoke their aid, since they have been so very 

 partially collected. To this must be added that no accurate account 

 has been preserved of the differences which exist as to the frequency 

 and the intensity of thunder-storms, or to their occurrence in different 

 countries, or even in different circumscribed spaces. 



No one in the Republic of New Grenada willingly inhabits El Sitio de 

 Tumba barreto near the golden mine of Vega de Supia, on account of the 

 frequency of thunderbolts. The people have preserved the recollection 

 of a great number of miners who had been killed by lightning. While 

 M. Boussingault traversed El Sitio during the prevalence of a storm, 

 a flash of lightning struck to the ground a negro who was acting as 

 his guide. The Loma de Pitago in the environs of Popayan, possesses 

 the same melancholy celebrity. A young Swedish botanist, M. 

 Plancheman, obstinately persisting, notwithstanding the advice of the 

 inhabitants, to cross the Loma, when the sky was covered with stormy 

 looking clouds, there met his death. Finally, in considering great 

 countries only, it appears that in some, entire years occasionally elapse 

 without a word being said of the tragical events occasioned by lightning, 

 whilst in others, on the contrary, in certain seasons they seem to 

 happen almost daily. For example, I find that in the summer of 1797, 

 from the month of June till the 18th of August, Volney counted in the 

 newspapers of the United States, eighty-four serious accidents, and 

 seventeen deaths; whilst in France, the newspapers of the year 1805, if I 

 am rightly informed, only announce one thunder-storm which was 

 productive of the death of one individual. In the year 1806, again, 

 they recount only the death of two children who were struck upon 

 their mother's knee at Aubagne, Department des Bouches du Rhone : in 

 the year 1807, the same journals mention the case only of two young 

 peasants of the Commune de St. Geniez who were struck with lightning 

 when engaged in harvest-work ; and in 1808 they allude only to a 

 waterman who was killed on the banks of the river at Angers. Notwith- 

 standing all this, the years are very far, even in France, from resembling 

 each other, in respect of the number of deaths from lightning. In one 



