208 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING. 

 To the Editors of tJie PMlosopJiical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 



Mr. Dudgeon, of Cargen, Dumfries, who supplied me with an 

 interesting case of an upward discharge of lightning which occurred 

 in June last, and is described in my communication to you in 

 August, was attracted by one of the cases given in my paper of 

 December (p. 483), in which a girl at Greneva is described as being 

 literally wrapped in a sheet of electric fire. Mr. Dudgeon states 

 that a similar phenomenon occurred to a friend of his during a 

 severe thunderstorm, which burst over a large tract in the south 

 of Scotland on the 12th of August, 1884 — the storm in which 

 Lord Lauderdale was killed when out shooting in Roxburghshire. 

 Mr. Dudgeon says : — " My friend Sir Alexander Jardine was out 

 on the moors on the same day. He felt the full effects of the storm 

 before the phenomenon I am about to describe took place. Both 

 he and his gamekeeper got quite wet from heavy rain, and the rain 

 ceased when the thunderstorm was felt most severely. As Sir 

 Alexander described it to me, he was enveloped in a sheet of light 

 which seemed to him like illuminated steam. He does not re- 

 member noticing any pricking sensation, and on my asking him 

 what the feeling was, he said it was indescribable, but a more 

 uncomfortable and weird feeling he never experienced. The game- 

 keeper, who was standing about ten yards from him, saw him 

 enveloped in the luminous cloud, and exclaimed when it cleared, 

 ' Oh ! Sir Alexander, I never thought to see you again ! ' Sir 

 Alexander went home, having received a severe shock, which 

 brought on a violent headache. He went to bed, and felt the 

 effects for some time afterwards. Jardine Hall, near which the 

 occurrence took place, is about 12 miles N.E. from Dumfries." 

 Iliglignte, N., 12th January, 1889. I am, &c., C. TOMLINSON. 



THE BEESSA PEIZE. 



The Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin gives notice that from 

 the 1st of January, 1887, the new term for competition for the 

 seventh Bressa Prize has begun, to which, according to the tes- 

 tator's will, scientific men and inventors of all nations will be 

 admitted. A prize will therefore be given to the scientific author 

 or inventor, whatever be his nationality, who during the years 

 1887-90, "according to the judgment of the Eoyal Academy of 

 Sciences of Turin, shall have made the most important and useful 

 discovery, or published the most valuable work on physical and 

 experimental science, natural history, mathematics, chemistry, 

 physiology, and pathology, as well as geology, history, geography, 

 and statistics." 



The term will be closed at the end of December 1890. 



The value of the prize amounts to 12,000 Italian lire. 



The prize will in no case be given to any of the National 

 Members of the Academy of Turin, resident or non-resident. 



The President of the R. Academy, 



Turin; January 1st, 1889. A. GtENOCCHI. 



