624 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [annO I762. 



and he was fearful of an ulcer being formed internally, as he had every appear- 

 ance of a consumption. But coming one day to him, he complained of a sore- 

 ness externally. On examining, he found a little matter formed, and on open- 

 ing it, extracted a little silk, about the length of a small pin, which relieved 

 his complaints entirely. He lived 1 years in perfect health, and died of the 

 small-pox. 

 , June 28th, 1756, Mr. A. was desired by the parish of Duloe, to attend 



Charles R s, who, 2 days before had been struck by lightning. On his 



examination, he found it had pierced through his coat, waistcoat, and shirt, a 

 little above the middle of the deltoid muscle of the right arm. It had burnt to 

 tinder almost all the sleeve of the shirt, waistcoat, and inside of the coat sleeve, 

 but the outside appeared untouched, except where the lightning pierced. The 

 flesh of his arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, was burnt, especially where 

 the lightning pierced, a full inch deep, and onwards to the wrist and fingers less 

 and less deep, till it did but just destroy the scarf skin ; it pierced again near the 

 umbilical region in a different direction, but not so deep : his thighs were burnt 

 in various directions, but not so deep ; from the right knee downwards on the 

 outside, it first burnt the hair, then the scarf skin, and continued on deeper, 

 especially about the ancle and instep of the foot. The left leg much in the same 

 manner on the inside, but not so deeply burnt. His waistcoat, breeches, and 

 stockings burnt on the inside as his coat sleeve, and the outside appeared un- 

 touched : his buckles melted in his shoes in various directions. In this deplorable 

 condition, his arm and the other parts appearing greatly inflamed, Mr. A. bled, 

 and gave him a purging draught to empty his bowels, and the next day put him 

 on the use of the bark : the applications were a warm spirituous bath, and the 

 common digesters. By these means there was a separation begun ; in 2 days the 

 edges of the burnt parts beginning to separate, when he thought to assist nature 

 by deep scarification ; but to his very great surprize, he could no more thrust 

 his knife through the burnt parts than through hide leather, or a thong ; by 

 which means the separation was rather slow, and the stench intolerable. By the 

 end of July he was able to walk abroad ; and about the middle of August per- 

 fectly healed. 



The lightning came through the upper part of the window ; a pair of sheep- 

 shears lay in the window, behind his back, which Mr. A. imagines collected, 

 and threw it in such various directions about his body. Another man sat by him, 

 slightly struck about his neck and left shoulder. It is remarkable, while the 

 man of the house went to his cellar to draw a jug of cyder, on his return he 

 found his wife and children along the floor, and the 2 men fallen forward, with 

 their faces on the table, all insensible. The man so mucli hurt recovered his 

 senses first. 



