DEATH BY LIGHTNING 4fi6 



more is a flash of lightning competent to produce this 

 effect. Accordingly, we have well-authenticated cases of 

 people being struck senseless by lightning who, on re- 

 covery, had no memory of pain. The following circum- 

 stantial case is described by Hemmer; 



On June 80, 1788, a soldier in the neighborhood of 

 Mannheim, being overtaken by rain, placed himself under 

 a tree, beneath which a woman had previously taken shel- 

 ter. He looked upward to see whether the branches were 

 thick enough to afford the required protection, and, in 

 doing so, was struck by lightning, and fell senseless to 

 the earth. The woman at his side experienced the shock 

 in her foot, but was not struck down. Some hours after- 

 ward the man revived, but remembered nothing about 

 what had occurred, save the fact of his looking up at 

 the branches. This was his last act of consciousness, and 

 he passed from the conscious to the unconscious condition 

 without pain. The visible marks of a lightning stroke 

 are usually insignificant: the hair is sometimes burned; 

 slight wounds are observed; while, in some instances, 

 a red streak marks the track of the discharge over the 

 skin. 



Under ordinary circumstances, the discharge from a 

 small Leyden jar is exceedingly unpleasant to me. Some 

 time ago I happened to stand in the presence of a nu- 

 merous audience, with a battery of fifteen large Leyden 

 jars charged beside me. Through some awkwardness on 

 my part, I touched a wire leading from the battery, and 

 the discharge went through my body. Life was abso- 

 lutely blotted out for a very sensible interval, without a 

 trace of pain. In a second or so consciousness returned; 

 I vaguely discerned the audience and apparatus, and, by 



