412 Mr. Snow Harris on the Electrical Discharge 
by lightning on the west coast of Erris, and seriously damaged, 
it appears that the electric matter in passing down the main 
hatchway passed between a man and a boy. Neither were 
hurt ; the latter experienced a shock only. It also passed close 
to another man lying across a hammock about the same spot, 
who jumped up and thought his neck handkerchief was on 
fire; the latter experienced a temporary effect only in his 
right arm. 
41. All these cases evidently show, that no damage occurs 
from a shock of lightning out of its direct path. It may, how- 
ever, divide in the absence of any good conducting course, 
and branch out into a variety of other courses (as already ob- 
served) and seize either wholly or partially upon bodies which 
happen to lie in certain points, as clearly shown in all these 
cases, and in the partial fusion of the leaf-gold given in ex- 
periment 2, p. 124, of my last communication. 
We may also expect to find an expansive effect of greater 
or less force in the vicinity of a discharge o^free electricity 
under the form of a dense spark, in a had conducting interval ; 
as observed by Dr. Priestley, “ the air being suddenly dis- 
placed gives a concussion to all the bodies which happen to 
be near it.’’ 
42. It is clear therefore that in all cases where injury or death 
has occurred, as in those before given in the Mignomne, Rod- 
ney, &c., it has been the result of the passage of the electric 
agency, either wholly or partially, through the animal body, 
and not from the result of any lateral explosion of electricity, 
such as described by Mr. Sturgeon. If, as he says, such ex- 
plosions in all cases of proximity to the primitive charge ne- 
cessarily arise, such proximity to the passage of a dense 
shock of lightning would be in all cases fatal, which is evi- 
dently not the case. 
43. I have now to consider briefly a few instances of the 
power of metallic bodies to transmit heavy discharges of 
lightning. 
In the case above quoted of the Hyacinth, we observe, as 
already remarked, that a flash of lightning which shivered 
the top-mast and top-gallant mast passed over a small iron 
chain and copper tube without fusing either. A similar 
result ensued in the second instance of the Hyacinth being 
struck by lightning; also in the case of the Athol and Buz- 
zard, and Snake, and in a great variety of others too nu- 
merous to detail here. 
In the case of the Fox, No. 5, it is seen that the shock of 
lightning which damaged the mast, was conducted without 
fusion or damage by sheet copper of of an in ch in 
