DEATH BY LIGHTNING. 443 



vent the audience from being alarmed, I observed that 

 it had often been my desire to receive accidentally such 

 a shock, and that my wish had at length been fulfilled. 

 But, while making this remark, the appearance which 

 my body presented to my eyes was that of a number 

 of separate pieces. The arms, for example, were de- 

 tached from the trunk, and seemed suspended in the 

 air. In fact, memory and the power of reasoning 

 appeared to be complete long before the optic nerve 

 was restored to healthy action. But what I wish chiefly 

 to dwell upon here is, the absolute painlessness of the 

 shock; and there cannot, I think, be a doubt that, to a 

 person struck dead by lightning, the passage from life 

 to death occurs without consciousness being in the 

 least degree implicated. It is an abrupt stoppage of 

 sensation, unaccompanied by a pang. 



