CHAPTER XL 



EFFECTS OF THE THUNDERBOLT 



THUNDERBOLT overthrows, breaks, and 

 rends bodies that do not permit electricity 

 to circulate freely. It shatters rocks and throws the 

 fragments great distances ; it unroofs our dwellings ; 

 it splits the trunks of trees and divides the wood into 

 little shreds ; it overthrows walls, or even wrenches 

 them from their foundations. In penetrating the 

 ground, it melts the sand on its way and makes irreg- 

 ulnr glass tubes. It reddens, melts, and vaporizes 

 metallic substances that give free passage to the 

 electric current, such as metal chains, the iron wire 

 of bells, the gilding of frames. Its preference, in 

 short, is for objects made of metal. There are in- 

 stances of persons left uninjured while the lightning 

 consumed the various metallic objects worn or car- 

 ried by them, such as gold-lace, metal buttons, and 

 coins. It sets fire to piles of combustible matter like 

 bundles of straw and stacks of dried fodder. 



"A feeble electric spark, like those I taught you 

 how to get from paper, makes but the slightest per- 

 n-pi il.l<> impression on us. At the very most, \\<> 

 feel a little prick at the point of communication. 

 Hut with the help of powerful apparatus at the dis- 

 posal of science, the electric shock becomes painful 

 and can be dangerous, or even mortal. When one 



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