Mr Charles Tomlinson on Lightning Figures. 261 
Tar in the skins, it was the fellmonger who discovered—what ? 
Not a landscape, not a fac-simile of the surrounding scenery, 
but “simply a very accurate representation of the. tree,’ 
&e. This brings us back to our ramified impressions of the 
Leyden jar, and redeems this wonderful story from the dreamy 
regions of the marvellous, into’ which science should never 
venture, except to rescue some poor misguided fact. 
These tree-like impressions on men and animals did not 
‘escape the notice of some of the earlier electricians. In 1786, 
MM. Bossut and Leroy made a report to the Académie on the 
subject of some singular marks found on the body of a man 
who had been killed by a stroke of lightning. ‘These marks 
were accounted for on the supposition that the electricity, in 
its passage through the body, had forced the blood into the 
vessels of the skin, and thus made all the ramifications of 
these vessels visible on the surface. The commissioners, in 
fact, adopted the theory of M. Besile, who reported the case, 
viz., that the effect was due “A eruption du sang dans les 
vaisseaux de la peau, et qui, dans cet instant forme un effet 
tout semblable a celui d’une injection.” M. Arago adopts a 
similar explanation ina case which occurred in France in 
July 1841, where two persons standing near a poplar were 
struck by lightning, and on the breast of each were found 
marks “ parfaitement semblable a des feuilles de peuplier.” 
This case is noted in the Comptes Rendus, tome xvi., in the 
following terms. ‘Note relative a l’apparence singulidre des 
ecchymoses formées par la foudre sur la peau de deux individus 
frappés du méme coup.” Cases of this kind are seldom or 
never seen by scientific observers, but are left to the observa- 
tion of bystanders, who mix up with actual facts a good deal 
of imagination. That a person struck by lightning, while 
standing under a tree, should have tree-like impressions on 
his person, would naturally lead an ordinary observer to see 
“an exact portrait of the tree” in those marks ; the blotches 
are taken for leaves, for a bird and bird’s nest, &c., as the 
case may be. But should the victim be conveyed to a medical 
man, he would be likely to interpret those ramifications into 
a case of ecchymosis, and to report accordingly. My belief 
is, that the lightning itself, or one of its ramifications, prints 
its own fiery mark on the skin of the victim, and thus pro- 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. XIV. NO. 11.—ocT. 1861, 21 
