and on the Effects of Lightning on certain Ships, 411 
practically sound, this man ought to have been killed on 
the spot by a “ lateral discharge,'^ as he says happened to a 
seaman called Wilson in the case of the Rodney. 
39. Mr. Sturgeon, therefore, if he still adheres to his theory, 
is at last reduced to the necessity of supposing, that his lateral 
discharge may sometimes occur, and sometimes not, which is 
manifestly in the teeth of his own hypothesis. This instance 
just quoted of the little effect experienced by persons in the 
vicinity of heavy electrical discharges is by no means a solitary 
one, as the following extract from a letter from Admiral 
Hawker, with which he favoured me relative to the damage 
done to the Mignomne, very fully shows : — 
The circumstances of the Mignomne being struck by 
lightning were these : she had been on shore, and was going 
to Port Royal, Jamaica, attended by the Desiree ; we had a 
day I think the hottest I ever experienced in the W. Indies, 
without a cloud. After sunset we observed clouds rising up 
from every part of the horizon with thunder and lightning. 
I ordered the topsails to be lowered in case of squalls, and 
we ran down towards Port Royal : about midnight the heavens 
seemed to be one continued flame, and soon after the main 
top-mast was shattered into probably fifty pieces, scattering 
the splinters in all directions ; the mainmast was split down 
to the keelson, and a sulphurous smell came up from the hold, 
which occasioned some to cry out that the ship was on fire. 
Two men were killed in the main-top, being burnt black, and 
having some splinters sticking in them, and a man who was 
sleeping on the lower deck with his head on a bag (for the 
ship having been on the rocks for three days there were 
no hammocks) near the armourer’s bench was found dead, 
with one black speck in his side ; another man sleeping hy him 
was not hurtJ^ 
40. The number of instances in which dense explosions of 
lightning have passed very near to persons without causing 
any serious injury to them is remarkable. 
Thus in the case of the Buzzard, No. 4, before mentioned ; 
the explosion at the time of shivering the top-mast passed so 
near to a seaman called Robert Purk, that it actually tore 
the shirt from his arm : he very kindly showed me the shirt, 
and pointed out the place where he was standing. Lieut. 
Pox, who commanded this vessel, and who was good enough 
to send me an account of the damage, &c. sustained, says, in 
allusion to this circumstance, “ The lightning took a strip 
out of the shirt about two inches wide from the shoulder to 
the wrist without hurting him.” 
No. 9. — In the instance of the Hawk cutter, lately struck 
2E2 
