196 Mr. B. Boddington on Ike Effects of a Stroke of Lightning. 



On inspecting the dead horse no wound was visible, nor any 

 apparent cause for his death ; the brass front of the bridle 

 was observed to be indented inwards, as if struck with a ham- 

 mer; and when he was skinned, a corresponding mark was 

 found on the bone of the head ; and from that spot to the ter- 

 mination of the spine, the flesh was quite black and putrid for 

 about the width of three inches, and there were diverging 

 marks of the same nature on each side of the head, passing 

 under the throat, and similar but much wider ones on the 

 flanks. The post-boy was thrown some yards ofi", but this 

 I conceive to have been by the spring of the horse when he 

 was struck dead ; and that spring doubtless jerked the car- 

 riage beyond the holes where the lightning had passed into 

 the earth. The boy was shaken by his fall, but in other respects 

 perfectly unhurt. I inspected the spot nearly three weeks after 

 the accident happened, found it was elevated ground, but by 

 no means the summit of the surrounding country; on the con- 

 trary, there were many higher hills in the neighbourhood: the 

 road itself was so much hollowed out, that the banks must 

 have been nearly equal to the height of the carriage; in a field 

 to the right, within a few yards of the hedge, and exactly op- 

 posite to where the shock took place, was a very high pear- 

 tree, — it however bore no trace of injury. The carriage ap- 

 pears to have been passing close to that side of the bank, as 

 the holes I have before alluded to were still perfectly visible; 

 indeed, the two to the right had undergone very little change, 

 as they were nearly off the road ; they were about fifteen 

 inches in diameter, perfectly round, and nearly as deep as they 

 were wide, the stones appearing to have been thrown out as 

 if done by a miner's blast. 



The collateral facts must now be mentioned. The landlord 

 of the inn at Tenbury informed me that he was sitting in his 

 parlour, talking to another person, when he saw the flash of 

 lightning that must have caused the accident; he observed to 

 his companion, that he had never before seen so singular a 

 flash, as it appeared to divide into four parts when it came 

 within about thirty yards of the earth; — this statement was 

 confirmed by the person who was with him. It should seem, 

 therefore, that they were not struck by a single discharge of 

 electric matter, but were enveloped in a mass of electricity; 

 and this is the more probable, from the traces of the different 

 strokes being so distinct, and yet taking such opposite direc- 

 tions: the fluid seems to have pervaded the whole atmo- 

 sphere, as many things were magnetized that were not in the 

 line of any of the tracks that could be traced. For instance, 

 Mr. Boddington's vvatcii was in his fob, and (juite out of the 

 line ik'ccribed by either of the shocks that passed over him : 



