and to Individuals. 137 



under a floor, or behind a wainscoat, or beneath the ground, 

 even without its ever being suspected. It seems, therefore, 

 difficult in this way to recognise with certainty, whether there 

 be a difference between man and man, as to their Hability 

 of being struck with lightning. The question can only be an- 

 swered by having recourse to indirect experiments ; and here, 

 though somewhat anticipating, we may introduce a very few 

 facts. The matter which is emitted in sparks from the conduc- 

 tor of an electrial machine when worked, is the matter of light- 

 ning. Like common lightning, therefore, it is transmitted, almost 

 without loss of power, through a great extent of metal, water, &c. 

 It thus also freely traverses a long- line of men, hand in hand, 

 thus forming a chain. But notwithstanding, there arc persons 

 who decidedly avert the communication, and who are not con- 

 scious even of the shock, although they may be placed second 

 on the line. These individuals, then, are exceptions, — they are 

 not conductors of the fulminating matter. In virtue, then, of 

 this exception, they must be ranged among non-conducting" 

 bodies which the lightning respects, or which it, at least, strikes 

 less frequently. 



But such striking differences as these cannot exist, without 

 there being at the same time many shades of individual differ- 

 ences. Now, every degree of conductibility corresponds, during 

 the time of a thunder-storm, to a certain measure of danger. 

 An individual who is as good a conductor as metal, will be as 

 often struck as metal, and an individual who interrupts the 

 communication in t?ie chain above alluded to, will have scarcely 

 more to fear tjian if he were glass or resin. Between these 

 limits there will be individuals whom the lightning will have a 

 tendency to strike in the same degree as it strikes wood, stone, 

 &c., &c. Hence, regarding the phenomena of lightning, every 

 thing does not depend upon the place which a man, occupies, 

 something also depends upon the physical constitution of the 

 individual. And hence I affirm there are such specific differ- 

 ences, that during a thunder storm, in situations which are in 

 every respect alike, one person runs much more danger than 

 another. 



