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facts. All that I can say at present is that I think electricity 
might be employed for this purpose ; and I shall state what follows 
as the observations or reasons which make me presume so. It has 
been observed that lightning by rarefying and reducing into vapor 
the moisture contained in solid wood, in an oak for instance, has 
forcibly separated its fibres and broken it into small splinters ; that 
by penetrating completely the hardest metals, as iron, it has sepa- 
rated the parts in an instant so as to convert a perfect solid into a 
state of fluidity; it is not then improbable that the same subtile 
matter passing through the bodies of animals with rapidity should 
possess sufficient force to produce an effect nearly similar. 
‘“‘ The flesh of animals killed in the usual manner is firm, hard, 
and not in a very eatable state because the particles adhere too 
forcibly to each other. At a certain period the cohesion is 
weakened, and in its progress towards putrefaction, which tends to 
produce a total separation, the flesh becomes what we call tender, 
or is in that state most proper to be used as our food. 
“It has frequently been remarked that animals killed by lightning 
putrefy immediately. This cannot be invariably the case, since 
a quantity of lightning sufficient to kill may not be sufficient to tear 
and divide the fibres and particles of flesh, and reduce them to that 
tender state which is the prelude to putrefaction. Hence it is that 
some animals killed in this manner will keep longer than others. 
But the putrefaction sometimes proceeds with surprising celerity. 
A respectable person assured me that he once knew a remarkable 
instance of this. A whole flock of sheep in Scotland being closely 
assembled under a tree, were killed by a flash of lightning ; and it 
being rather late in the evening, the proprietor, desirous of saving 
something, sent persons early the next morning to flay them; but 
the putrefaction was such and the stench so abominable that they 
had not the courage to execute their orders, and the bodies were 
accordingly buried in their skins. It is not unreasonable to pre- 
sume that between the period of their death and that of their 
putrefaction a time intervened in which the flesh might be only 
tender, and only sufficiently so to be served at table. Add to this 
that persons who have eaten of fowls killed by our feeble imitation 
of lightning (electricity) and dressed immediately, have asserted 
that the flesh was remarkably tender. ... . 
‘As this kind of death is nevertheless more sudden and conse- 
quently less severe than any other, if this should operate as 
