[ 2 35 ] 
XLII. A Letter from Thomas Law- 
rence, M. D. to William Heberden, M D. 
and F. R. $, concerning the Ejfe&s of 
Lightning , m E ilex- iircet, on the i%th 
of June, 1764. 
S I R, 
Re . a 76 J 4. ly 5 ’ T Send y° u ’ as y° u defired; an account 
^ > A of the effects the lightning on Mon- 
day fe’n night had in my neighbourhood. The ftorm 
which came from the South-eaft, broke firfl on the 
two houfes at the bottom of Eflex-ftreet (which look 
irotn their fouth windows upon the river) and beat 
down feveral feet of the eaft-flue of the chimney on 
the weft fide, and feparated the remainder down to 
the roof of the houfe from the weftern flue by a 
wide crack. From hence the lightning went higher 
up the ftieet, and at trie diftance of about eighteen 
yards from the chimney juft mentioned, went thro’ 
the eves of a houfe, in a direction from the North- 
eafl: to the South weft, as appeared by the breach, and 
forced the cieling of the garret inward by a kind of 
pointed bulge, without breaking the laths. It con- 
tinued up the ftreet, perhaps along the leaden gutter, 
over the eves of the houfes for thirty yards, as j o-uefs, 
and turned downward by the lide of a leaden pine 
made to convey the water from the top of the houfe, 
and tore a wooden cafe at the lower end of that pipe* 
cracked the wall near that place, and broke feveral 
Hh 2 panes 
