32 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
was found that the compass had been completely demagnetized; while on the 
other hand the steel work of the chronometer had been affected in the opposite 
manner, and the instrument accelerated over half an hour. 
Powder magazines have also been made the particular favorites of lightning 
stroke. Many of them have been exploded by lightning, and thousands of lives 
lost. But no magazine protected by a suitable rod’ has ever been thus damaged. 
Such have been struck, but the shock has always been carried off harmlessly into 
the ground. The gyeatest disaster ever worked by lightning was doubtless that 
which happened at Brescia in 1769. The tower of St. Wazaire, having 207,600 
pounds of gunpowder stowed beneath it, was struck and the powder fired. The 
tower rose bodily into the air, to return in a shower of stone; three thousand 
persons were killed, and about one-sixth of the city destroyed. Thirteen years 
later Fort Marlborough in Sumatra was struck, and four hundred barrels of pow- 
der exploded. 
When living beings booms the subjects of a flash of lightning the effects may 
vary quite considerably. In one case which happened about a year ago, a man’s 
boots were torn from his feet by lightning, while he himself was only stunned. In 
another instance a lady was lying in bed, and the flash entered her window and 
singed away her hair without doing much other mischief. Other freaks of light- 
‘ ning were mentioned at the beginning of this article. When death results from 
such a stroke the body may present any one of a great number of appearances. 
It may be almost unmarked, or covered with burns. Livid welts sometimes 
appear upon it, as if the flesh had been bruised by a blow. Sometimes impres- 
sions, we might almost say photographs, of near objects are imprinted upon the 
skin. A man was killed by lightning at Zante in 1836, and marks of coins which 
he had carried in his pocket were found stamped upon his person. Yetthe coins 
themselves were at a considerable distance from the marks! Such a death is 
probably painless. ‘The electric shock moves so much more rapidly than the 
nervous impression that the victim dies before he has time to become conscious of 
injury. The lower animals seem to be in special danger from lightning. Instance 
after instance could be cited in which animals have been killed in close proximity 
to men while the latter remained unharmed. A ploughman was once, ploughing 
with four oxen. Being struck by lightning, both man and beasts were over- 
thrown. The man, however, was but slightly stunned, while two of the oxen 
were killed outright, and a third paralyzed. According to D’Abbadie, a single . 
flash of lightning in Ethiopia destroyed two thousand sheep. Even the fish are 
not exempt from the paralyzing influence. When lightning falls upon the water 
many of its inmates are killed. 
Fortunately the danger from lightning can be diminished by certain precau- 
tions. Some of these are quite generally known. For instance, one should 
always keep away from all large masses of metal, and from isolated trees. But — 
although isolated trees are such dangerous companions during a thunderstorm, a 
man is but little exposed to risk in a dense forest. Trees may be struck in the 
