The times., 1897-09-13
NO FEAR OF LIGHTNING.
Electric Bolt Frightens Many, Hits
Few and Kills Still Fewer.


Few and Kills Still Fewer.
A carrpnt news event gives the results
of an investigation carried out by DR.. g
Stanley Han president OF Clark Univer
sity. en the things that most excite fear
IN People OF the 298 classes OF objects
OF fear 10 which l ,T07 persons confessed,
thunder AMI lightning led all the rest, al
though in certain localities, as, for in
stance, those subject to cyclones, etc, the
fear CT the latter predominates- IL may
be- accepted d s probably true that thunder
storms constitute the most pronounced
source of fear with the m8 jority of people,
due no doubt. to the always impressive
and not infrequently overpowering nature
OF the phenomenon. But is there any jlisti-
fication ia fact for this fear 50 far as fatal
results are concerned?
We believe there is not, but on the con-
trary, ttat many other causes which barely
have u place in Dr. Halls list are infinitely
more entitled to the distinction as fear
producers than lightning. AS proof Of this
we may cite statistics OF the United States
Weather Bureau. These show that for the
four years 1S90-93 the deaths from light
ming numbered 7S4, or an averageot 196
year. Again, II. f Kretzer, of st. Louis.
found iron the record of nearly 200 news
papers that for the five years 1SS3-SS there
were 1,030 deaths caused by lightning,
or an average of 20G year. We doubt
whether, Of the number of deaths classed
as accidental in the whole United States
any one group can show SO small a number.
In New York cit alone over 200 people are
| drowned every year, while nearly $50 are
| burned or scalded TO death, and close onto
! 300 persons meet their end by falls of one
! kind or another. Comparing the record of
! goo lightning fatalities for the whole
| country with the above records for New
Yorl: city, with its total of nearly 500
! accidental deaths every year, it viii be
seen how proundless is the popular fear of
! lightning. II is q survival, an inherited
| superstition.
But there is another point in connection
with this matter which ought to be par
ticnlarly comforting TO city DIV ellers, al
| belt country dwellers may not be af-
| ferted in like manner, and that is that
! statistics show that the risk of lightning
is five tines greater il the country than
III the city. The cause of this immunity
| for city dwellers is rot far to seek. It is
! do-htless due to the predominance of metal
roofs, the we'll grounded water pipes in
| houses, and bly, as much as anything
| to the protective network of electric wires
of ali kinds. The popular belief that a
stroke OF lightning is Invariably fatal is
| also rot bonre out by facts. Indeed, one
record specially devoted to this feature
shows that of 212 persons struck only74
were killed. Taking it all in all. there
| seems TO be no more groundless popular
fear than that of lightning. Indeed, If
one can go by statistics, the risk of meet.
ing death by a horse kick in New YORK
Is over so per cent greater than that of
| death by lightning.
Yetwitli allthe weigbtof fstatisticsag against
its dCadliness. lightning viii probably con
| t1nue TO scare people as heretofore. Per
haps, after all. there may be more direct
cause than the mere psychological one
usually ascribed TO It, and that is the fact
that miny people of nervous temperament
are affected honrs before the approach OF
a. thunder storm and thus rendered par
| ticularly powerless 10 stand the strain
which nCre OF less affects the most phleg-
matte natures during a disturbance in the
heavens.-Electrical Engineer.