UGHTNING STROKE. ELECTRIC SHOCK. 



Fatal. Non-fatal. Herbivora at pasture under tree. Symptoms : dazed 

 for a few minutes, unconscious for hours, permanent paresis or paralysis- 

 Lesions : lines of burned hair, skin or muscles, rigor mortis slight, decompo- 

 sition rapid, bluish black venous and capillary congestion, extravasations, 

 blood fluid. Diagnosis. Treatment : ammonia, ether, alcohol, caffein, 

 nerve stimulants. 



While a stroke of lightning is usually fatal, yet in certain cases, 

 the victim is but temporarily stunned and recovers with more or 

 less remaining paralysis. The subject has also great importance 

 in connection with the claim of the owner against a company which 

 may have insured his stock against lightning. 



Any animal may be struck, but the herbivora which are turned 

 out to pasture are especially liable to such injuries, because they 

 seek shelter under trees, which operate as lightning rods. 



Symptoms. In slight cases of shock whether by lightning or 

 the current of a hanging live electric wire, the subject may be 

 simply dazed and may or may not fall to the ground, and recover 

 itself in a very few minutes. In other cases there is a more 

 violent shock which prostrates the animal to the earth, where it 

 may lie unconscious for some hours and yet quickly and com- 

 pletely recover. In still other cases after such prostration re- 

 covery is incomplete and the animal remains affected with pare- 

 sis or paralysis of one or more, commonly of both hind, or all four 

 limbs. In the more violent shocks death is instantaneous. 



Often the impact and course of the current are marked by 

 visible lesions. Sometimes the skin is wounded exposing a bluish 

 black tissue beneath. More commonly there is an area of burnt 

 hair, or straight, radiating or angular lines of raised and frizzled 

 hair marking the course of the current. In a horse killed by an 

 electric light wire in Ithaca recently the current had burned to a 

 depth of several inches in the muscles of the shoulder which 

 rested on the wire. 



Lesions are often rather indefinite. There may be no appre- 

 ciable change in the nervous system. Rigor mortis is slight ; it 

 passes off rapidly and decomposition sets in early. The venous 

 system and capillaries are usually filled with liquid blood of a 

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