250 



The Museum Gazette 



It may be suggested, as regards the sheep, that black 

 structures are much better recipients of heat than white 

 ones. 



On the Influence of Metallic Conductors. 



Metal, and especially copper and iron, are excellent con- 

 ductors of the electric current. They attract it, and it will 

 leap from other structures to gain them, often tearing or 

 shattering all impediments. Many observers have recorded, 

 with wonder, how it would take the nails out of boots, tear 

 off buttons, and melt watch-cases. Quoting again from 

 M. Flammarion, we have the following : — 



" Moreover, lightning seems to have a special predilection for shoes ; 

 it seldom respects them, even when it spares the other garments. 

 Sabots, shoes, and even boots are removed, unsewn, unnailed, cut 

 to pieces and thrown far away with extraordinary violence. Very 

 often the discharge penetrates into the human body by the head and 

 leaves it by the feet. 



"During a violent storm (June 8, 1868) a workman was passing 

 near the Jardin des Plantes, when he felt a great oppression on his 

 stomach. He was then knocked down roughly by an irresistible 

 force, and deprived of his senses at the moment of his fall. He was 

 picked up and taken home, and on being examined, his body bore 

 no trace of a wound, and he escaped with a fright. But some days 

 after, when he had recovered from the shock, he remembered that 

 he had worn boots at the time of the accident. These had dis- 

 appeared, the lightning had stolen them from him, though it acted 

 from a distance. The boots were found in the street, and the soles 

 had the nails completely removed, although they were screwed in 

 and the boots were nearly new." 



There need be but little mystery as to the detaching of 

 nails and screws. The effect of the electric current would 

 be to raise them, for the moment, to intense heat, and thus 

 burn them loose from their surroundings. At the same time 

 the production of steam around them would tend to eject 

 them and drive them to a distance. 



Other instances illustrating the attraction of metal are 

 given in the following narrations, which might be indefinitely 

 multiplied : — 



