694 L ! G 
the contrary to heavinefs ..—Suppofe many degree* of little- 
nefs and lightnefs in particles, fo as many might float in 
the air a good while before they fell. Burnet .— Inconftancy; 
vsnfteadinefs.-—Of two things they mult chufe one; namely, 
whether they would, to their endlefs difgrace, with ridi¬ 
culous lightnefs difmifs him whofe reftitution they had in 
fo importunate manner defired, or elfe co.ndefcend unto 
that demand. Hooker. 
For, unto knight there is no greater fliame, 
Than lightnefs and inconflancy in love. Fairy Queen. 
Unchaftity; want of conduCt in women.—Is it the difdain 
of my eftate, or the opinion of my lightnefs , that embol¬ 
dened Inch bale fancies towards me ? Sidney. 
Can modefty then more betray our fenfe, 
Than woman’s lightnefs? Skakefpeare, 
Agility; 4/imblenefs. 
LI'GHTNING, f. [from lighten, lightening.'] The flafli 
that attends thunder. —Lightning is a great flame, very 
bright, extending every way to a great diftance, fuddenly 
darting upwards, and there ending, fo that it is only mo- 
mentaneous. Mufchenbrcek. 
Senfe thinks the lightning born before the thunder; 
What tells us then they both together are? Davies. 
Mitigation; abatement; [from to lighten, to make lefs 
heavy.]—We were once in hopes of his recovery, upon a 
kind mefiage from the widow ; but this only proved a 
lightning before death. Addifon's SpeQator. 
How oft, when men are at the point of death, 
Have they been merry? which their keepers call 
A lightning before death. Shak. Romeo and Juliet, 
Lightning is a bright and vivid flafli of fire, fuddenly 
appearing in the atmofphere, and commonly dilappearing 
in an inftant; fometimes attended with clouds and thun¬ 
der, and fometimes not. For an account of the pheno¬ 
mena of lightning, fee the article Electricity, vol. vi. 
p. +08, 4-31, 2. 
Lightning was looked upon as facred both by the Greeks 
and Romans, and was fuppoftd to be fent to execute ven¬ 
geance on the earth: hence perfons killed with lightning, 
being thought hateful to the gods, were buried apart by 
themfelves, left the allies of other men Ihould receive pol¬ 
lution from them. Some lay they were interred upon the 
very fpot where they died ; others will have it that they 
had no interment, but were fuffered to rot where they fell, 
becatife it was unlawful for any man to approach the place. 
For this reafon the ground was hedged in, left any perfon 
unawares ihould contract pollution from it. All places 
ftruck with lightning were carefully avoided and fenced 
round, out of an opinion that Jupiter had either taken of¬ 
fence at them, and fixed upon them the marks of his dif- 
pleafure, or that he had, by tiiis means, pitched upon 
them as facred to himfelf. The ground thus fenced about 
was called by the Romans bidentul. Lightning was much 
obferved in augury, and was a good or bad omen, accord¬ 
ing to the circumltances attending it. 
According to Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, See. the olive, 
fig-tree, and laurel, are never ftruck by lightning. Porta 
adopted this opinion, which was that of all the ancients. 
Toaldo fays alio, it is only thofe trees which contain refin 
that can perhaps efcape the danger of thunder; fuch as 
the olive-tree, laurel, fir, and fome others of the like kind. 
This, in all probability, is the foundation of the practice, 
common among the vulgar in France, of keeping in their 
lioufes, and placing on the fummits of (leeples and at the 
corners of fields, branches of olive that have been blefied, 
and of burning them in their houfes during (forms. It is 
poflible, and even probable, that trees of this kind may 
be lefs frequently ((ruck by lightning than thofe which 
contain a great deal of aqueous juices ; but we can aflferr, 
that thefe prefervatives of the ancients are not equal to 
our conductors. On the 2iitof June, 1783, the lightning 
burnt the leaves of a fig-tree, and all the bark of an olive- 
L I G 
tree, in the territory of Sallon; and the fame thing had 
happened there formerly, and there even had been fig-trees 
and olive-trees fplit and torn to pieces by lightning. 
The general efteCts of lightning are (o well known, that 
it is unneceflary to infill upon them. We may juft notice 
a few particulars lefs familiar, and enquire how far ahei- 
ent and modern obfervations agree. 
“Thunder fometimes (fays Seneca) renders wine fro¬ 
zen and congealed.”- Of two perfons killed by thunder 
at Pellifanne in 1783, one loft immediately all his natural 
heat, and the body was found extremely cold. Thunder 
muft fometimes produce thefe effects by occafioning a ftrong 
and fpeedy evaporation. 
“Bodies ftruck by thunder (fays Plutarch) do not 
corrupt; dogs and birds do not eat them.” This may 
fometimes be the cafe ; but modern experience brings nu¬ 
merous examples of the contrary. On the day of the fair 
of Villefranche, July 22, 1783, the thunder killed a mule, 
which corrupted fo foon thatrt was found necefiary to re¬ 
move it. Several (heep were killed by lightning on the 
mountain of Sederon in Provence; and the (bepherds ab- 
ftained, for a long time, from approaching the place, on 
account of the bad fmeil which they emitted. But Mr. 
Achard’s experiments (Mem. de l’Acad. de Berlin) are 
much more decifive. He cut a piece of raw beef into 
three parts, and eleftrified the firft pofitively for ten 
hours without any (hock; the fecond he electrified for 
as long negatively, and the third he did not eleCtrify. 
Thefe three pieces were left in the fame apartment, 
and expofed to the fame degree of heat. When ex¬ 
amined next day, both the pieces which had been elec¬ 
trified appeared to be tender, but were free from the leaflr 
bad fmeil. On the fourth day the eleftrified flefh had an 
intolerably fetid fmeil, and that which had not been elec¬ 
trified began to fmeil a little. M. Achard repeated thefe 
experiments with boiled veal. That which was electrified 
had the next day an acid fmeil and an unpleafant tafte; 
but that which had not been electrified continued fweet 
for three days, and only on the fourth day began to have 
an acid fmeil. 
M. Achard then killed feveral birds by eleCtric (hocks, 
and at the fame time deprived others of life by (ticking a 
needle through their heads; and, placing them all in the 
fame temperature, covered them with glais receivers in or¬ 
der to preferve them from infeCts. Having obferved the 
gradual progrefs of corruption in both, he plainly per¬ 
ceived that it took place much fooner, and advanced more 
rapidly, in thofe killed by eleCtric (hocks than in thole 
deprived of life by the needle. In thofe alfo to which a 
ftronger (hock had been given, the degree of corruption 
was far ftrotiger than in the others; and the caufe in all 
probability was, that in this cafe the veflels containing 
the animal fluids were fuddenly deftroyed, by which 
means thefe fluids had diflufed themfelves through the 
particles of the body, and might thus accelerate putridity. 
It clearly follows from thefe experiments, that electri¬ 
city accelerates corruption, and that the putrefaction of 
flefti after a thunder-ftorm muft be aferibed folely to the 
more abundant accumulation of the eleCtric matter at that 
time. M. Achard faw that this was the cafe in regard to 
feveral perfons killed by lightning. The body of a farmer, 
who loft his life in this manner on the 2d of July, between 
five and fix o’clock in the evening, emitted next morning 
a very perceptible fetid fmeil, which in the evening was 
totally infupp.ortable. 
M deLamanon, (Journal dePhyfique,) in his Obferva¬ 
tions on the Nature of the Fog o.f 1783, (fee our article 
Fog, vol. vii. p. 530.) notices what he calls afeending 
thunder. “On the 21ft of June, 17S3, afeending thunder 
was feen at Sallon : like phenomena were oblerved the 
fame day in (everal other places. In feveral villages 
through which I palled, I was fliovvn a great number of 
trees it ripped of their bark by the thunder; and I remarked 
that the part of the bark, or wood, carried away, was al- 
meft always broad at the bottom of the tree, and narrow 
at 
