160 NATURE AND LIFE. 



light. Whether this be true or not, while the sky is clear 

 this fluid has no visible effect on human beings ; but, when- 

 ever it accumulates in the clouds, and gives rise to storms, 

 it produces effects that are the most manifest proofs of the 

 influence exerted over life by electricity. Persons killed by 

 lightning present a great variety of appearances. Some- 

 times one struck by lightning is killed outright on the spot, 

 the body remaining standing or sitting ; sometimes, on the 

 contrary, it is thrown to a great distance. Sometimes the 

 flash tears off and destroys the victim's dress, leaving the 

 body untouched, and sometimes the reverse is the case. 

 In some instances the destruction is frightful, the heart is 

 torn apart and the bones crushed; in others the organs are 

 observed entirely uninjured. In certain cases flaccidity of 

 the limbs occurs, softening of the bones, collapse of the 

 lungs ; in others, contractions and rigidity are remarked. 

 Sometimes the body of the person struck decomposes 

 rapidly, but at times it resists decay. Lightning, which 

 shatters trees, and overturns walls, seems not to produce 

 mutilations in animals at all readily. When the stroke 

 does not produce death, it creates at least serious disturb- 

 ances sometimes temporary, but oftener beyond remedy. 

 Besides the burns and various eruptions noticed on the 

 skin of those struck by lightning, they often suffer, very 

 curiously, a complete loss of hair ; they are affected with 

 paralysis, dumbness, deafness, amaurosis, or imbecility. 

 In brief, the destructive attacks of atmospheric electricity 

 touch all the functions of the nervous system. 



The action of electric fishes may be likened to that of 

 lightning, in being independent of our intention. The 

 shocks of the gymnotus are particularly formidable. Alex- 

 ander Humboldt relates that, having put both his feet on 

 one of these fish, just taken from the water, he experienced 

 so violent a shock that he felt pains in all his joints the 

 rest of the day. These shocks throw the strongest ani- 



