116 Mr. C. Tomlinson on some Effects of Lightning . 



lightning does not act capriciously, as some suppose, but 

 according to the law of its being. The following case was 

 related to a nephew of mine whiie Yicar of Denchworth, near 

 Wantage. On June 9, 1832, a woman, Martha Warman, was 

 walking from Wantage in company with two men, she occu- 

 pying the middle place, when about 1.30 p.m. they were 

 struck by lightning and fell to the ground. The men soon 

 regained their feet, but the woman was dead ; her face, body, 

 and clothes were cut and torn, her stockings set on fire, and 

 her boots much rent. But, seeing the curious way in which 

 lightning picks out bits of metal, it must be noted that this 

 woman at the time of the accident was carrying an umbrella, 

 she wore steel in her stays, and had wire in her bonnet, which 

 was fused and twisted. A cross by the wayside marks the 

 spot. 



In this case the metal carried by the woman assisted in 

 forming a line of least resistance, and determining the main 

 trunk of the discharge, while subsidiary branches struck the 

 men with less effect. Hence this case does not disturb the 

 general rule that, when a row of persons or animals is struck, 

 the two outer individuals suffer most. Thus, a miller near 

 Chartres was walking between a horse and a mule. The two 

 animals were struck and killed. The man's hat was burnt 

 and his hair singed, but he suffered no other injury. On the 

 other hand, when animals are not in a row the effects vary. 

 For example, in August 1833, at Crasnoge-Selo, the stable of 

 the officers' school of cavalry was struck by lightning at one 

 corner of the building. The lightning travelled along the 

 iron racks, setting the hay on fire : the horses all fell to the 

 ground, sixteen of them were killed, and two were rendered 

 quite deaf. The lightning entered the head or neck and 

 passed down the forelegs. The sixteen horses were not 

 together in a row, but were scattered up and down the stable, 

 and it was supposed that those only were killed that were in 

 contact with the metal coverings of the racks. 



A remarkable case, which looks like an exception to the 

 rule as to animals in a row, occurred in May last, and was 

 communicated to me by Mr. P. Dudgeon, of Cargn, Dum- 

 fries, in which he states that on the 19th of that month, during 

 a thunderstorm at Closeburn, about seven miles north of 

 Dumfries, " a man was leading home two horses just taken 

 from the plough; the two horses were killed instantaneously; 

 the man was uninjured by the lightning, but was hurt by one 

 of the horses falling on him. He was leading the horses on 

 the near side of the pair. This is rather against the theory 

 of the intermediate bodies transmitting the charge." 



