204 Rev. Mr Scoresby on the Effects of Lightmng. 



point where the electrical current had entered the ocean. The 

 rod of the conductor which was melted was four feet long by 

 five inches and a-half in diameter, and the iron conductor was 

 three-tenths of an inch in diameter. It was evidently too 

 small, (in France they always make their conductors thicker.) 

 An excellent chronometer, whose error never exceeded the 

 tenth of a second in twenty-four hours, was so much derang- 

 ed by the stroke of lightning, that it was accelerated thirty- 

 four minutes. 



The cause of this error was perceived in London, where it 

 was ascertained that all the parts of the instrument had ac- 

 quired a great degree of magnetism, in such a manner that its 

 general motion depended very sensibly upon the position which 

 was given it. 



The second stroke of lightning, like the first, killed nobody; 

 and it is a singular fact, that it even performed a very remark- 

 able cure. A passenger, very old and overgrown with fat, was 

 so much palsied in his limbs, that for three years he had never 

 been able to walk altogether above half a mile ; since he em- 

 barked, he had never been seen to stand up for a single instant. 



After the discharge, which took place near the bed where 

 the poor cripple was sleeping, they observed him with asto- 

 nishment rise and walk to the deck, where he continued to pa- 

 rade for a long time, as if he had never been ill. At first he 

 lost his senses, but this mental affection did not last long, and 

 the cure is complete. This person, who was formerly paralytic, 

 having continued to walk with ease all ihe rest of the voyage, 

 had the entire use of his limbs when he arrived, and he tra- 

 velled on foot from the place where he disembarked to his 

 own residence. 



All the knives and forks of iron which were found melted 

 in the ship had acquired magnetic power. 



The effects produced upon the magnetic needles were very 

 remarkable. Although they were all in the same room, the 

 lightning produced upon them very different effects. In some 

 the magnetic action was augmented, in others it was diminish- 

 ed, in some it was destroyed, and in others the poles were re- 

 versed. 



