and on the Effects of Lighiniyig on certain Ships. 411 



practically sound, this man ought to have been killed on 

 the spot by a ^'^ lateral discharge^'' as he says happened to a 

 seaman called Wilson in the case of the Rodney. 



39. Mr. Sturgeon, therefore, if he still adheres to his theory, 

 is at last reduced to the necessity of supposing, that his lateral 

 discharge may sometimes occur, and sometimes not, which is 

 manifestly in the teeth of his own hypothesis. This instance 

 just quoted of the little effect experienced by persons in the 

 vicinity of heavy electrical discharges is by no means a solitary 

 one, as the following extract from a letter from Admiral 

 Hawker, with which he favoured me relative to the damage 

 done to the Mignomne, very full}^ shows : — 



" The circumstances of the Mignomne being struck by 

 lightning were these: she had been on shore, and was going 

 to Port Royal, Jamaica, attended by the Desiree; we had a 

 day I think the hottest I ever experienced in the W. Indies, 

 without a cloud. After sunset we observed clouds rising up 

 from every part of the horizon with thunder and lightning. 

 I ordered the topsails to be lowered in case of squalls, and 

 we ran down towards Port Royal : about midnight the heavens 

 seemed to be one continued flame, and soon after the main 

 top-mast w^as shattered into probably fifty pieces, scattering 

 the splinters in all directions ; the mainmast was split down 

 to the keelson, and a sulphurous smell came up from the hold, 

 which occasioned some to cry out that the ship was on fire. 

 Two men were killed in the main- top, being burnt black, and 

 liaving some splinters sticking in them, and a man who was 

 sleeping on the lower deck with his head on a bag (for the 

 ship having been on the rocks for three days there were 

 no hammocks) near the armourer's bench was found dead, 

 with one black speck in his side ; another man sleeping by him 

 was not hurt." 



40. The number of instances in which dense explosions of 

 lightning have passed very near to persons without causing 

 any serious injury to them is remarkable. 



Thus in the case of the Buzzard, No. 4, before mentioned; 

 the explosion at the time of shivering the top-mast passed so 

 near to a seaman called Robert Purk, that it actually tore 

 the shirt from his arm : he very kindly showed me the shirt, 

 and pointed out the place where he was standing. Lieut. 

 Fox, who commanded this vessel, and who was good enough 

 to send me an account of the damage, &c. sustained, says, in 

 allusion to this circumstance, " The lightning took a strip 

 out of the shirt about two inches wide from the shoulder to 

 the wrist without hurting him." 



No. 9. — In the instance of the Hawk cutter, lately struck 

 2E2 



