Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

enome-
m and
Laws.
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ects of
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ELECTRICITY.
639
so interesting, and so well described by Mr B. Bodding-
ton, the father of the gentleman who was struck with the
lightning, that we shall present our readers with an ab¬
stract of it.
On the 13th of April 1832, Mr and Mrs T. F. Bodding-
ton left Tenbury, occupying the hind barouche seat of their
post-chariot, the servants being in the inside. About half
past three o’clock, with the sun shining, and a serene sky,
they observed a dark cloud to arise in the direction of
their route. Soon after a clap of distant thunder was
heard, but no lightning was seen. A few drops of rain
having begun to fall, Mr Boddington put up an umbrella,
and, after giving it to his wife, he put up another, and
when he was in the act of extending the latter, a flash of
lightning struck them both senseless, threw the horses on
the ground, and cast the post-boy to a distance. One of
the servants, after recovering from his alarm, looked out
of the window, and saw the head of Mr Boddington hang¬
ing over the seat, and apparently lifeless. Jumping from
the carriage, he raised his master’s head, and found his
clothes on fire, while Mrs Boddington was standing up
tearing off her bonnet and shawls. She had neither seen
the flash nor heard the thunder, but felt a sense of suffoca¬
tion, and was putting off her things to obtain air. She and
the servant then proceeded to extinguish the fire, which
was still consuming her husband’s dress, ihe lightning,
passing down through the umbrella, penetrated through
the bonnet into Mrs Boddington’s neck, and zigzagged
along the skin of her neck to the steel busk of her stays,
leaving a painful but not a deep wound, and affecting the
hearing of the left ear. From the lower end of the busk
the lightning pierced through all the garments down to
her thighs, where it made wounds on both; but the one
on the left was so deep and so near the femoral artery,
that the astonishment is she escaped with her life, the
haemorrhage being very great. None of her clothes were
burnt, notwithstanding their inflammable nature, nor did
any of her wounds present the appearance of burns. Mr
Boddington, after remaining insensible for ten minutes,
revived, and felt a pain all over him. ihe main force of
the shock passed down the handle of the umbrella to his
left arm, though a portion of it made a hole through the
brim of his hat, and burnt off all the hair that was below
it, along with his eye-brows and eye-lashes. The frag¬
ments of the burnt parts falling into the eyes, deprived
him nearly of sight for two or three days. The electric
stream shattered his left hand, melted his gold shirt-but¬
tons, and tore the clothes in a most extraordinary man¬
ner, forcing parts of them, with the buttons, to a distance,
and inflicting a deep wound under their position on the
wrist. The arm was laid bare to the elbow, a severe
wound was made in his body, and every article of his
dress torn away as if by gunpowder. It then passed to
the iron of the seat, wounding his back, the whole of
which was literally flayed. The horse rode b}7 the posti¬
lion was killed. A Very striking difference M as observed
in the wounds of Mr and Mrs Boddington. Hers were
fractures of the flesh. His, on the contrary, whether deep
or shallow, were all burns, and had a white and blistered
appearance. No wound was visible on the dead horse
excepting an indentation on the head where the fluid en¬
tered, discolouring the spine in its passage.
For the purpose of determining in what manner death
is produced by a powerful electric discharge, Van Marum
sent the electric shock through eels one and a half and
three and a half feet long. The smaller eels were instant¬
ly killed when the shock wras sent through their whole Phenome-
body ; but when the charge was only sent through indi- na atul
vidual parts, these parts only lost their irritability, while ^ Laws. ^
the rest retained it. When the shock w7ent through the
upper and fore part of the head of the large eels, the un¬
der jaw, as well as the muscles of the neck and belly, and
even the lower part of the body, preserved their irritabili¬
ty, while the parts which conveyed the charge had total¬
ly lost it. When smaller shocks were sent through warm¬
blooded animals, similar effects were observed ; and hence
it has been inferred that the circulation of the blood
cannot take place when such an effect has been produ¬
ced, and that the suspension or destruction of life must
arise from this cause. When the shock does not affect
the large arteries the animal may recover, provided that
the spinal marrow and the cerebellum are not injured.
Various experiments have been made by Mr Morgan Experi-
and others, with the view of ascertaining the influence ofments °f
electricity on the animal functions. Mr Morgan found that Morgan,
if the diaphragm forms part of the circuit between the
inside and outside coating of a jar containing two square
feet, the lungs will make a sudden effort, followed by a
loud shout. When a small charge is similarly applied, a
violent fit of laughter is always produced, even on the grav¬
est persons. A strong charge transmitted through the dia¬
phragm is frequently accompanied by tears and sighs, and
sometimes by fainting. When a strong charge is sent
through the spine of a person standing, he will frequently
either drop on his knees, or fall prostrate on the floor. A
strong charge having been transmitted accidentally through
Mr Singer’s head, he felt the sensation of a violent but uni¬
versal blow, which was followed by transient indistinct¬
ness of vision and loss of memory, but no permanent in¬
jury M7as received. When the charge of a battery is sent
through the head of a bird, its optic nerve is always in¬
jured or destroyed; and when a smarter shock is given
to a larger animal, a tremor and depression, with a general
prostration of strength, is produced.1
Mr Cavendish observed that the sensible shock de¬
pended more on the quantity than on the intensity of the
charge, a double degree of intensity with only half the
quantity invariably producing a less powerful shock. Ac¬
cording to Volta, only a little more electricity is necessary
to produce an equal shock from a larger surface. A sur¬
face, for example, sixteen times as large, required only an
elevation of the electrometer to one tenth of the number
of degrees. Dr Robison informs us that the shock obtain¬
ed from a small charge given to a large surface, yields a
less unpleasant shock than a large charge given to a small
surface. As these observations, however, depend upon
individual feeling, and as it is known that different per¬
sons are affected in very different ways with the same
degree of electricity, they may not be generally correct.
The influence of electricity on the pulse has been ex- Effects of
amined by different authors, though with some variety ofelectricity
result. M. Trembley found that the arterial pulse wason^he
quickened in persons electrified. M. Boze was of the^ut,e'
same opinion ; but the Abbe Nollet could not discover
any increase in the rapidity of the circulation of various
animals which he electrified. Cavallo, on the contrary,
informs us that an experienced medical electrician assured
him that, “ in a diseased state of the body, an obvious ac¬
celeration of the pulse wras observed to result from the ap¬
plication of electricity.”
In the experiments made by M. Nollet, his attention Experi-
was directed to other points beside the state of the pulse. ™ents ol
1 Dr Young observes, that a minute tremor communicated to the most elastic parts of the human body, particularly to the chest,
occasions a nervous agitation, not unlike the effect oi weak electricity.