or any other known procedure, producing instantaneous death. The current used is one of 1,700 to 2,000 volts, with 16,000 alternations per minute, and estimated to send 72 to 8 amperes of current through the body. While death is considered to be coincident with the passage of the current the first time that the switch is turned, yet three applications of about three seconds each are given, and the victim is usually pronounced dead within thirty seconds after the current is first switched on."

324. Post-mortem lesions.-In injuries done by electricity there are no lesions characteristic of the cause. The only signs are the local burns at the point of contact with the wires, which have the shape of the conductor that came in contact with the body. In the majority of instances, however, the circumstantial evidence will be such as to leave no doubt as to the cause of the injury. In the fatal cases, similarly, there is nothing to point to the cause of death except the slight skin lesion. And possibly in some cases there may be signs of asphyxia, as the death is said to be due to paralysis of respiration. McDonald, in a number of cases executed by electricity at Sing Sing, reported multiple punctate hemorrhages in the medulla, but they do not seem to be characteristic enough to be the basis of a decision in a case of doubtful cause of death. Rigor mortis appears early, is marked and continues long, and decomposition takes place early.

II. LIGHTNING.

325. In general.-Injuries by lightning are similar to those from electricity generated for mechanical uses. These accidents occur most frequently during the summer or hot months, and more often during thunder storms and rain storms, though they may take place without wind or rain, and and with an almost cloudless sky. An instance of a lightning casualty without any other great meteorological change is cited by Le Conte:10 Sunday, the 2d of July, 1843, about three o'clock P. M., five negroes were simultaneously prostrated by a single stroke of lightning, on plantation in Georgia. "The sun was shining brilliantly at

'Bennett, Amer. X-ray Journal, June, 1900.

'See Marmaduke Shields' and Sheridan Delephine's article on the postmortem appearances in a case of death from the action of electricity. Brit. Med. Journ., March 14, 1885.

'See article by McDonald and Van Gieson, New York Med. Journ., May 7th and May 14th, 1892.

10 Le Conte, New York Journ. of Med., Vol. III., p. 295.

the time, and a greater portion of the visible hemisphere presented the usual serenity of the summer sky. A singular and rather angrylooking cloud had for a short time previously been observed near the verge of the southeastern horizon, from which occasionally proceeded the low rumblings of very distant thunder; but nothing in the appearance of the heavens betokened the immediate proximity of a thunder-storm, or prepared them for the terrible electrical explosion which followed. Not a drop of rain had yet fallen, and the earth was quite dry. Such was the condition of things when suddenly the whole atmosphere in the neighborhood was momentarily illuminated by what appeared to be a universal flash, which was accompanied, or rather succeeded, by a single astounding report. No dust was observed to rise from the ground, nor any other evidence of mechanical violence. No other thunder was heard after this explosion; the cloud quickly dispersed, precipitating only a little rain a few minutes after the accident; and in the course of an hour the atmosphere resumed its tranquillity. The five negroes were taken up in a state of insensibility amounting to apparent death." Three of them had been instantaneously killed. In two no marks of injury were discovered; in the third there was a burnt spot about the size of a dollar under the right axilla. The other two recovered. One of these was a woman, aged seventy years, and the singular fact is stated that in her the catamenial discharge which had, in the ordinary course of nature, ceased for more than twenty years, was completely, and thus far (about a year afterwards) permanently, re-established.

326. Effects. The effects of lightning,11 like those of electricity, may be either a slight burn or severe nervous disturbances or death. Sestier collected 601 instances of people struck by lightning of whom only 250 were killed. Those who recover from a lightning stroke rarely recognize the source of their injury. They usually become immediately unconscious and remain so for a few minutes or even for several days. Deafness is a very frequent sequence and blindness or impairment of vision is not uncommon. Paralyses, especially of the legs, are fairly frequent, as are interference with the functions of the internal organs, difficulty in urination, and in defecation; so are disturbances of memory and reason. These functional disturbances, however, are usually only temporary, lasting from a few hours to a few months, as a rule.

11 See Oesterlen's article on "Lightning" in Maschka's Handbuch der Ger. Med., Vol. I., p. 795.

327. External lesions. External injuries are not severe in about half of the cases. They usually take the form of burns, from a slight reddening to carbonization of the tissues in the severe cases. In a certain number there are distinct, branched, spark tracings, popularly interpreted as "photographs of trees." Deeper injuries also occur at the points where the spark enters or leaves the body, looking more or less like gunshot wounds. Exceptionally there may be fractures of the skull or tearing off of extremities. The clothing may be torn into shreds or ripped off of the body. Oesterlen described the effects of lightning upon man in two classes, depending on whether the man is standing in the open or under shelter. If a man, for instance, is leaning against a tree, the lightning will go from the tree to the man's shoulders (or whatever part of the man is leaning against the tree), and there show deep burns or wounds. Then, by a narrower band, go down the back, gradually becoming narrower and more superficial down to the point where the clothes are fastened closest to the body; the electricity is better conducted by the clothing, which may be torn or pierced, and then the lightning passes back again to the skin, where the new point of contact is again shown by deep burning of the tissues, and then on to the shoes and the ground. If the person is standing in the open, he is usually struck on the head, the hat pierced or burned, and the hair singed. The skull may be pierced and the blood-vessels of the head destroyed; but more often the electricity passes by the skin, striking on the sternum with a deep burn there, and a narrow burnt strip from the sternum to the pelvic region. In the lower part of the body it goes more often by the clothes causing a perforation of the dorsum of the foot, and frequently a destruction of the shoe. Of the persons struck who had been in the open fields, three out of four died; of those under trees, one in two died; and of those in houses when they were struck, one in five died.

328. Post-mortem findings. The post-mortem findings in persons struck by lightning are practically limited to the condition of the skin for proof of the cause of death. Of 119 persons killed, nineteen had no external lesions, and twenty-six only very slight evidence of the lightning, such as redness of the skin, excoriations, small perforations of the tissue or singeing of the hair. As a rule, decomposition sets in early and continues rapidly, the body being distinctly distended two or three hours after death, discolored, and with a distinct odor. Rigor mortis sets in early. The internal findings are of very little value, the most significant being the changes in the blood,

which is dark-colored and fluid, though it may coagulate in small clots after its removal from the body. Congestion of the vascular organs is fairly common, and sometimes there are ecchymoses in the peritoneum. Rupture of various organs is sometimes found.

329. Cases. The following instances may be taken of the effects produced by lightning. A man12 was driving a water cart along an open road, and sitting on the tank, when he was struck by lightning. Both the driver and the horse were killed at the same time. There was found a burnt spot on the back of the man's head, about an inch and a half in diameter, where the hair had been burned off. The rest of the hair had been singed. Down his spine was a black line three fingers in breadth, extending to the buttocks, where the skin was torn off for some distance. There were no other marks on the body. The horse's nose bag was on the tank where the driver had been sitting on it, and had a hole burned through it. Between the tank and the front of the cart were two zinc pails which had been fused, showing the path that the lightning followed through the cart till it struck the horse.

In another instance13 a farm laborer took refuge from a thunderstorm under a tree while three of his companions took shelter in a neighboring shed. The occupants of the shed were scared but not hurt, and after the storm was over they went to look for their companion. The tree under which they had left him was denuded of its bark, and their companion's boots were standing at its foot. The man himself was lying on his back a couple of yards away and though he had been fully clothed when last seen, he was now naked except for the left arm of his flannel vest. He was conscious. His body showed marks of burning, and his leg was broken. The field around was strewn with fragments of his clothing. His watch had a hole burnt in the case and the chain was almost entirely destroyed. The man stated that he was struck violently on the chest and shoulders, became enveloped in blinding light, and hurled in the air, coming down on his back "all of a crash," but never losing consciousness. He was deaf. His face was burned and his body was covered with marks of burning, deeper on the abdomen and right thigh than on the chest. Down each thigh and leg was a broad, indurated band of burning which passed along the inner side of the knee, to end below at the inner side of the left ankle and at the right heel, respectively.

"Lancet. London, July 25th, 1896.

"Lancet, London, 1879, Vol. II., p.

On the left foot was a lacerated wound with a comminuted fracture of the os calcis. The man made a good recovery.

Boudin has collected14 a number of cases in which death left the victim rigid in the position in which he was at the time of death.

According to Carden, quoted by Rivière, eight reapers, taking their food under an oak, were struck by lightning, and died, preserving their attitude, one of a man eating, another drinking. In Lorraine a woman and one of her children were killed, and remained in a sitting posture. At Dover a man killed with four horses was found sitting under a bush. A man of law at Troyes was struck dead by lightning when on horseback. On January 22, 1849, a goat was killed near Clermont, and was found sitting on his haunches, with a bunch of green leaves in his mouth. A woman was struck while plucking a flower, and her body was found standing nearly erect, with the flower in her hand. A priest was killed while on horseback; the animal reached home, a distance of two leagues, his dead master still sitting erect in the saddle.

"Boudin, Ann. d'Hygiène, 1852, Hist. Méd. de la Foudre et de ses Effets sur l'Homme.