Death by Lightning.— Queries. 315 
DEATH BY LIGHTNING.—QUERIES. 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
Sir,—During a visit to a friend in Herefordshire, I was de- 
sired to examine the body of a man whose life had been suddenly 
destroyed by lightning at Colwall near Ledbury. The wife of 
the deceased obstinately refusing permission to open the body, 
my examination was confined to the effeets of the electric fluid 
on the external surface. On viewing the head, I found the hair 
and the beard of the left side singed, and the cen of the ear, 
eheek, and upper part of the neck ‘perfectly black, but entire. 
Between the shoulders there was another black spot of the size 
of a crown, exactly over the spine, and on the outside of the 
thigh of the right side just above the kuee, there was another 
black spot which I could scarcely cover with my hand. The 
parts of the shirt and flannel lining of the breeches and jacket 
which covered the injured skin were charred, but neither the ex~ 
terior parts of the small-clothes (which were made of corduroy) 
nor of the jacket were burnt, the electric fluid having only oeca- 
sioned a laceration resembling an incision made by a sharp in- 
strument. It appears that the electric matter entered the left 
side of the head, passed through the chest and abdomen in an 
oblique direction, and escaped just above the knee on the oppo- 
site side of the body. Whether the fluid entered or escaped at 
the spot on the back, I am at a loss to say; but from the ex- 
ternal part of the jacket not being burnt, I suspect a quantity 
escaped there. The spots were perfectly. black, and exhibited 
the same appearance as is produced by the caustic alkali after 
remaining several hours on the skin; and from its flabby state, 
the mischief was no doubt deep. Whether the fluid produced 
the same effect on the internal parts through which the fluid 
passed as it did on the skin, is a question which I shall be obliged 
to you, or some of your readers who have ascertained the fact in 
a similar case, to answer. The man at the time the accident 
happened was under an oak-tree, aud when the lightning struck 
him he sprung forward and fell on his face; soon after which 
there was a second flash, and this might have produced the spot 
between the shoulders ; but if so, where did it escape? 
About twenty years ago I had an op portunity to examine a 
man who was struck dead by lightning in a fied near Hereford, 
‘with an umbrella over his head. On that man the electric fluid 
uced no evident effect either externally or internally, The 
in had a sulphurous smeil. 
Queries. Did the passing of the fluid through the umbrella 
prevent its burning the body? As no apparent injury was done 
to the body, how are we to account for its cffects in eahrov ing 
life ? 
