on some Persons sitting behind a Carriage, ^-c. 193 



where tlie discharge entered by a hole about the size of a 

 pea, and on the inside by a similar hole at the other extremity 

 of the pencil-case, where it passed oxit, setting fire to his 

 trowsers and drawers, and inflicting a deep wound round his 

 back, the whole of which was literally flayed. 



A very striking difference was observable in the wounds of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Boddington : her's, as I before stated, were frac- 

 tures of the flesh; his, on the contrary, whether deep or shal" 

 low, were all of them burns, and had a white and blistered 

 appearance. The accumulation of force which the electricity 

 acquired at this place deserves particular attention. I have 

 observed that the shock on the right arm was nothing as 

 compared to that on the left ; the shirt-button was unchanged, 

 and unmoved from its position, and the passage of the fluid 

 down the arm barely indicated ; yet when it ari'ived at the 

 pencil-case, the amount of its intensity was such as to melt 

 one end of it, and displace a cornelian seal at the other ex- 

 tremity, forcing it, I suppose, to some distance, as it has never 

 since been found, though it was carefully sought after. It 

 should seem that this accumulation of strength must have 

 been derived either from the portion that passed over Mi's. 

 Boddington, or from union with that which went down the left 

 arm ; in either case it appears to have been strangely diverted 

 fi'om its original course. The whole shock was now col- 

 lected in the iron that formed the back of the barouche seat; 

 the leather attached to it was torn off, and the iron itself 

 broken in two, immediately opposite the spring, and the ends 

 of the fractured parts bent forwards so as nearly to touch it: 

 by this conveyance it is supposed to have diffused itself over 

 the whole of the under carriage, and to have passed to the 

 earth by the tires' of the wheels, four holes being made in the 

 road at the points they touched at the moment of the shock, 

 though the carriage was not standing in them at the time it 

 stopped. The post-chariot was a new one, and the only in- 

 jury it received, was the fracture and derangement of the 

 barouche seat, as already stated, the removal of the japan in a 

 line along the bulge behind, and the breaking of the pole; the 

 latter circumstance I conceive to have arisen, solely, from the 

 fall of the horses, and to have been quite independent of the 

 passage of the electric fluid. The horse the postilion rode 

 was tbund to be dead ; the other was evidently panic-struck, 

 but unhurt, as he rose as soon as the harness was cleared 

 i'rom him ; and though in a profuse sweat and trembling, he 

 soon recovered, and not only was rode back for assistance, but 

 returned again in the chaise that conveyed the poor sufferers 

 to Tcnbury, where they were detained at the inn lor a month 

 before it was thought safe to remove them. 



2 C 2 



