[ i6 ] 
III. Pari of a Letter from John Huxham, 
M. D, R R, S, to W. Watfon, R. R. S. 
in relation to the E^Bs of Lightning at 
Plymouth. 
Read^j^.g, QUnday, December ly, twenty- 
u j r,. M minuces after one P. M. a vail 
body of lightning fell on l;he great hulk at Plymouth- 
dock, which ferves to hoift in and fix the marts of 
the men of war. You may have fome idea of it by 
this fcheme, which was fent me by the lieutenant 
of the Peregrine, which lay clofe by the hulk, who 
law It. It burrt out about a mile or two to the weft- 
ward of the hulk, and rurtied with incredible velo- 
city towards it. The piece of the Derrick cut out 
was at leaft eighteen inches diameter, and about 
hfteen or rtxteen feet long : this particular piece was 
in three or four places begirt with iron hoops about 
two inches broad, and half an inch thick, which were 
completely cut in two by the lightning, as if done by 
the niceft hand and inftrument. Two days after the 
accident I went on board myfelf, and examined the 
matter, and have added what I further obferved. 
The lightning was immediately fucceeded by a 
dreadful peal of thunder, and that forthwith by the 
1 rtiower of hail I ever faw in England 
which fell only in and about this town, for a mile or 
two ; there' was very little of it at the dock, though 
only two miles diftant. The hail-ftones were as big 
as fmall nutmegs, much of the fhape of fome fort 
ot beads cut uito fquares, a kind of a dodecahedra. 
quite pellucid as the cleareft ice, with only a white 
Ipeck in the middle, about the bignefs of a pea. 
iiut that, for which i chiefly mention the whole, is, 
that 
