C 2 97 ] 
the metal it furrounded, which the lightning might 
not have heated, as inftantly to have reduced the 
whole to too cool a ftate, for any other contiguous 
body to be burnt thereby . 
In like manner, a ftream of lightning palling thro' 
a bag of money, might fufe the furfaces of fuch 
pieces as lay in its way, and folder a number of them 
together ; and yet the bag remain unhurt. 
An accident or two of this kind may have come, 
by tradition, to the knowlege of fonie of the firft col- 
lectors of marvellous faCts, and from them be tran- 
fcribed by others, perhaps with additions and im- 
provements. Thus, according to Pliny *, both gold, 
Silver, and brafs, have been melted in bags fealed up, 
which were not in the leaf! burnt, nor wafe the wax 
-of the feals melted : whereas Seneca ‘f* fpeaks only 
of filver being melted in the pocket or purfe, which 
remained whole and unhurt. Later writers feem to 
have copied from one of thefe for the moft part, with- 
out mentioning their authority. 
In the Philofophical Transactions are two or three 
relations, which feem, at firft, to favour a cold fulion; 
but, when duly conftdered, prove nothing conclu- 
fively. The firft is in a paper concerning the efteCts 
of lightning at Colchefter, on July 16, 1708 ; which 
concludes with obferving, that, “ during the fame 
lc ftorm, four perfons were killed in a boat, that was 
a going from Harwich to Ipfwich ; and that, in one 
<c of their pockets, a watch and chain was melted all 
“ on a lump.” In another account, given by Or- 
* Plin. Nat. Hift, lib. ii. c. 51. 
f Seneca, Nat. Quseft. 1. ii. c. 32. 
Vol. LI. Qj} 
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