2l6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1787. 



XVII. Remarks on Mr. Brydones Account of a Remarkable Thunder Storm in 

 Scotland. By the Rt. Hon. Charles Earl Stanhope, F. R. S. p. 130. 



No storm of lightning has ever produced effects more curious to contemplate 

 than those related by Mr. Brydone, in his letter to the president of this Society. 

 That account contains facts of such consequence, and so perfectly inexplicable 

 by the commonly received principles of electricity, that it undoubtedly deserves 

 particular attention. It appears, that a man, James Lauder, sitting on the fore 

 part of a cart drawn by 2 horses, was suddenly struck dead, as also the horses 

 that he was driving, and that the cart itself was much injured by electrical fire, 

 though no lightning fell at or near the place where this accident happened. 



Now few facts of this kind have ever been better authenticated than this is. 

 It appears first, that a man, who was sitting on the fore-part of another cart, 

 only 24 yards behind the cart that was struck, " had Lauder, his cart and horses, 

 full in view when they fell; he was stunned by a loud report, and saw his com- 

 panion, his horses and cart, fall to the ground; he immediately ran to his assist- 

 ance, but found him quite dead; he perceived no flash or appearance of fire.'* 

 It also appears, that another man, a shepherd of St. Cuthbert's farm, was also 

 a witness of this event. He was distant from Lauder " between 2 and 300 

 yards, and was looking at the 2 carts, when he was stunned by a loud report, 

 and at the same instant saw the first of the carts fall to the ground. He saw 

 no lightning, nor appearance of fire whatever." The concurrent testimony of 

 these two men is confirmed by Patrick Brydone, Esq. who lives at a small dis- 

 tance from the spot where Lauder was killed; and Mr. Brydone relates, that a 

 storm appeared far off; and that he, and some company in his house, were 

 " suddenly alarmed by a loud report, for which they were not prepared by any 

 preceding flash." There is the greater weight to be given to this account of Mr. 

 Brydone, as it so happened, that he was just then " observing the progress of 

 the storm, at an open window, in the 2d story of his house," and making the 

 company " observe, by a stop-watch, the time that the sound took to reach 

 them." 



That the death of Lauder and of the horses was not occasioned by any direct 

 main stroke of explosion from a thunder- cloud, either positively or negativelv 

 electrified. Lord S. thinks is evident; since no lightning whatever passed from 

 the clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, at the place where they 

 were killed. It is equally evident, and for the very same reason, that they were 

 not deprived of life by any transmitted main stroke of explosion, either positive 

 or negative. It is also obvious, he adds, that the lateral explosion was not the 

 cause of this mischief; for the lateral explosion does always proceed immedi- 

 ately from the main stroke itself; and therefore there can exist no lateral explo- 

 sion, in the case when there is no main stroke whatever. 



