Part 10 (1/2)
Suddenly, without hearing or seeing anything, the father felt the straw move under his feet; he turned mechanically, and gave a great cry on seeing his little daughter stretched motionless on the ground.
She was dead. Her little corset was unsewn and her chemise burnt.
But of all the fantastic actions of lightning, the most extraordinary and incomprehensible is the mania it has for undressing its victims, and leaving them dead or fainting in the primitive costume of our first parents--or in a dress too simple to be allowed by our civilized customs.
This deplorable and quite inexplicable habit has given lightning a large scientific _dossier_, from which we have already cited examples in the first chapter, and from which we will again extract some fragments.
Near Angers, on May 12, 1901, a farm lad named Rousteau, aged twenty-three, was killed by lightning in the middle of the fields. The corpse was found nearly naked.
On June 29, 1869, at Pradettes (Ariege), the Mayor was unfortunate enough to take shelter under a very high poplar. Soon after he had done so, there was a burst of lightning which split the tree and struck him. In one of its diabolical freaks it entirely undressed him, throwing his various garments round about him, reduced to rags, with the exception of one shoe.
In June, 1903, at Saint-Laurent-la-Gatine, thunder broke over M.
Fromentin while he was working a plough drawn by three horses.
Lightning killed the leader, and completely undressed M. Fromentin after burning his hat.
The same day, at Limoges, a farm servant named Barcelot was struck under an oak. His corpse was completely naked and he had a severe wound on his left side.
On August 20 of the same year, a violent storm burst over the Isle of Re. A farmer, who was on his way to the station at Finaud, was struck fifty yards from his own house. The lightning removed all his clothes.
In 1894 the keeper of the Commune of Saint-Cyr-en-Val, near Orleans, was struck while on his rounds; the fluid deprived him of his clothes and removed all the nails from one of his shoes.
On July 1903, at Aseras, near Nice, during a violent storm with hailstones 350 grammes in weight, a Mme. Blanc was on her way to meet a servant who was in the fields. She had only taken a few steps when she was struck by lightning and completely undressed. Her body was uninjured, but the poor woman became dumb.
How fantastic and extravagant it is! It is impossible to a.s.sign any rule to the capricious advance of lightning.
How are we to explain the following facts of nature?
One night in April, at about 6 p.m., near Ajaccio, a peasant named J.
B. Pantaloni was leaving the fields and hurrying home to escape from a storm. He had hardly reached his house when it was set on fire by an electric discharge, and the unfortunate man was killed dead and carbonized. At the same time his two sons and a daughter, who were in the same room, were completely undressed and their garments disappeared. These last were not hurt in any way.
Very often clothes, which have been torn and tattered, are taken a long way off.
On October 1, 1868, seven people were seeking shelter under an enormous beech near the village of Bonello in the Commune of Perret (Cotes-du-Nord), when, suddenly, lightning struck the tree and killed one of them. The six others were thrown to the ground without being much hurt. The clothes of the one who had been struck were reduced to tatters; several of these were found hanging on the branches of the tree.
One day a workman was sheltering under the shed of a kiosque in which there were five men playing cards. He was grazed by lightning. The fluid, after having pa.s.sed between the players without hurting them, left the kiosque, and removed a shoe from the poor workman, who was petrified with fright. They searched for the shoe which had been confiscated by the fulminant matter, but in vain.
Moreover, lightning seems to have a special predilection for shoes; it seldom respects them, even when it spares the other garments. Sabots, shoes, and even boots are removed, unsewn, un-nailed, cut to pieces, and thrown far away with extraordinary violence. Very often the discharge penetrates into the human body by the head and leaves it by the feet.
During a violent storm (June 8, 1868) a workman was pa.s.sing near the Jardin des Plantes, when he felt a great oppression on his stomach. He was then knocked down roughly by an irresistible force, and deprived of the use of his senses at the moment of the fall. He was picked up and taken home, and on being examined, his body bore no trace of a wound, and he escaped with a fright. But some days after, when he had recovered from the shock, he remembered that he had worn boots at the time of the accident. These had disappeared, the lightning had stolen them from him, though it acted from a distance. The boots were found in the street, and the soles had the nails completely removed, although they were screwed in and the boots were nearly new.
On May 31, 1904, at Villemontoire (Aisne), a workman was killed on a hay-c.o.c.k, his clothes were reduced to fragments, and his shoes were not to be found. Two other workmen were wounded, and the c.o.c.k was set on fire.
On May 11, 1893, lightning broke over the Commune of Chapelle-en-Blezy (Haute-Marne). A young shepherd, who was watching his flock in the fields, was knocked over by the fluid and lost consciousness. When he came to himself he found that his sabots and cap had disappeared.
Arago states that a workman was struck under a pavilion, and that the pieces of his hat were found embedded in the ceiling.
Biot gives the case of a hat which was flung ten paces without a breath of wind.
We could multiply these very curious observations, but we must restrain ourselves so as to remain within the limits of this little book. Did I not say just now that lightning has sometimes--though very rarely--exercised a beneficial influence on sick people it strikes?
Yes; we hear of several cases where thunder has shown itself a rival to the n.o.blest disciples of Esculapius, and where it has worked veritable miracles.