334 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



death, this would occur without pain. Deatli in this case 

 would be simply the sudden negation of life, without any 

 intervention of consciousness whatever. 



The time required for a rifle bullet to pass clean through 

 a man's head may be roughly estimated at a thousandth of 

 a second. Here, therefore, we should have no room for 

 sensation, and death would be painless. But there are 

 other actions which far transcend in rapidity that of the 

 rifle bullet. A flash of lightning cleaves a cloud, appear- 

 ing atid disappearing in less than a hundred thousandth of 

 a second, and the velocity of electricity is such as would 

 carry it in a single second over a distance almost equal to 

 that which separates the earth and moon. It is well known 

 that a luminous impression once made upon the retina 

 endures for about one-sixth of a second, and that this 

 is the reason why we see a continuous band of light when 

 a glowing coal is caused to pass rapidly through the air. 

 A body illuminated by an instantaneous flash continues to 

 be seen for the sixth of a second after the flash has become 

 extinct; and if the body thus illuminated be in motion, it 

 appears at rest at the place where the flash falls upon it. 

 When a color-top with differently colored sectors is caused 

 to spin rapidly the colors blend together. Such a top, 

 rotating in a dark room and illuminated by an electric 

 spark, appears motionless, each distinct color being clearly 

 seen. Professor Dove has found that a flush of lightning 

 produces the same effect. During a thunderstorm he put 

 a color-top in exceedingly rapid motion, and found that 

 every flash revealed the top as a motionless object with its 

 colors distinct. If illuminated solely by a flash of lightning, 

 the motion of all bodies on the earth's surface would, as 

 Dove has remarked, appear suspended. A cannon ball, 

 for example, would have its flight apparently arrested, 

 and would seem to hang motionless in space as long as the 

 luminous impression which revealed the ball remained upon 

 the eye. 



If, then, a rifle bullet move with sufficient rapidity to 

 destroy life without the interposition of sensation, much 

 more i"s a flash of lightning competent to produce this 

 effect. Accordingly, we have well-authenticated cases of 

 people being struck senseless by lightning who, on recov- 

 ery, had no memory of pain. The following circumstan- 

 tial case is described by Hemrner: 



