MARVELLOUS FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1916, 6 November 1890, Page 35

MARVELLOUS FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.

PICTTJBES DRAWN ON HUMAN BODIES,

We have all seen lightning, and we all know something about it in a general way, but there is, among the curious effects produced by it, one class of phenomena which, from the rarity of its occurrence, is little known, but which is well deserving of particular attention.

It has received the name of keraunograpby, and consists in the production of images on the bodies of persons, &c, struck by the electric fluid.

The subject has been comparatively neglected in England, though Mr C. Tomlinson contributed some valuable information on it in a paper read before the British Association in 1861, and in an article in Nature for March 6, 1875.

The first recorded lightning print occurs in a work by Gregory, of Nazianzen, who declares that in the year 360 a.d. images were printed by lightning upon the bodies and clothes of the workmen occupied in rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem.

An earthquake took place while the labourers were engaged on the foundation work, and caused them to flee into a neighbouring church for shelter. During the accompanying thunderstorm, "globes of fire" (says the father of the church) " were seen to proceed from the earth, and the workmen who had taken refuge in the church had certain figures of crosses mysteriously impressed upon their clothes and their bodies."

He adds that these crosses were dark or invisible during the day, but brilliant or phosphorescent in the night time. In more modern times such impressions have been noticed, for instance by Dr John Still, Bishop of Wells, who says that one summer day, in the year 1595, when the people were attending divine service in the Cathedral of Wells, a thunderstorm came on which " frightened them so much that they all threw themselves upon the ground." Lightning played about the place, but without hurting anyone.

When they got over their fright, they found crosses printed upon the bodies of all present, on the arms of some (including the bishop), and on the shoulders or breasts of others.

A third case of crosses printed by lightning happened during the eruption of Vesuvius in 1660, and upon this phenomenon the learned Father Kirscher published a long dissertation, from which we gather that they were seen upon various articles of linen, «fee, exposed to the open air during the volcanic eruption.

These crosses were observed in great numbers throughout the kingdom of Naples.

Thirty were counted by one individual upon the linen cloth of an altar, 15 upjn a shirtsleeve, and eight upon the dress of a child. Kirscher's explanation is that they were produced by volatile matter exhaled from the earth, which, being deposited upon the threads of the linen, crossing each other at right angles, would infallibly give rise to this peculiar figure.

In the year 1786 it was stated in print by Leroy that Franklin had told him repeatedly some years before of a man who, standing at his door during a thunderstorm, saw the lightning fall upon a tree opposite to him, and who afterwards had a reversed image of the tree indelibly imprinted on his chest.

A still more remarkable case was reported by Mr 'James Shaw to the members of the Meteorological Society in 1812. In this year there existed near the village of Combe Bay, four miles from Bath, an extensive wood composed chiefly of oaks and nut trees.

In the centre of the wood was a pasture ground of some 50 square yards in extent, where six sheep were lying when a storm came on.

All the sheep were killed by lightning ; but when their skins were afterwards taken off, the internal portions of each bore " the most faithful image" of the surrounding landscape ; every detail was marked on them, and Mr Shaw and his friends on seeing them at once identified the local scenery so wonderfully represented.

The skins were put on exhibition for some time afterwards at Bath.

In Cuba an old man had the image of a piece of money imprinted on his arm by lightning 1 , the original coin from which the impression was taken lying at the time of the electric discharge on the table before him.

Later a man living at Havana had a cross marked on his breast, the image in this case being the exact representation of a metallic cross which hung suspended by a cord from his neck.

In August 1823, in the province of Jibacoa, in the same island, lightning was seen to strike a large tree and print upon the trunk of it bhe image of a bent nail which had been driven into one of the higher branches. In Trinidad, not long after this, a lady was struck by lightning, and upon her body was found the image of a metallic brooch which she wore in the band of her apron.

The two next cases are given by Professor Arioli.

The first is that of a sailor who was also struck whilst asleep in his hammock on a ship lying at anchor in the port of Zante, and upon whose breast the number 44 was distinctly printed.

A similar figure, made of metal, was attached to the ship, and placed between the mizzen mast, upon which the lightning fell, and the place where the sailor slept.

The second relates to another sailor who was struck dead by a flash. On his body were observed two slight marks — the one yellow the other black — which proceeded from the man's neck and continued as far as the region of the kidneys, at which spot the most distinct image of a horseshoe was graven.

This image was the exact representation of a real horseshoe nailed upon the mast, at the foot of which the sailor sat. Moreover, the image and the real object were exactly the same size.

We might go on citing scores of cases similar in their cause and their manifestation to those already cited — cases in which the image of a tree, trunk, branches, and leaves, or (as in one curious case) the image of a bird's nest, or that of a cow, and the like, was imprinted on the person struck ; but the reader will doubtless have gained a tolerably good idea of the phenomena from those related, and we close with the following curious example, which reminds us that prints may occur upon inanimate tissues, such as linen, &c, as well as upon the bodies of men and animals.

On the 14th November 1830, lightning struck the Chateau de la Benatonniere in La Neudie. On the next day one of the inmates remarked upon the back of a lady's dress a peculiar design which happened to be a faithful copy of the ornaments on the back of one of the chairs in a saloon of the chateau.

The lady to whom the dress belonged remembered that she was sitting in that chair at the time of the storm.

The image, we are told, was so distinct that it appeared as if it bad been recently copied, with great pains, from the design at the back of the chair.

These facts were related to Dr Baudin by M. de Bessay, who was present on the occasion.

The scientific aspect of the subject is well presented by Mr Tomlinson — who gives one or two later examples in the volume of Nature already referred to.