Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-08-22
LIGHTNING.
Its Effects Upon the Nervous Sys

slNely pupllsneu relaClnB Ihe clrcuin-
stances of the death Of a child from
fright caused by thunder storm.
She was ten years of age, and having
been reused from sleep by the thunder,
implored permission to share her
mothers bed till the storm was over,
This was refused her and she grew SO
quiet that her parent went to see what
was the matter. She reached the
child's bedside just in time to see her
die. Another incident of death from
fear of lightning was reported from
Cleveland recently. The victim was
an elderly lady who lived alone. An
Unusually sharp and near flash, follow
ed by an instant crash of thunder, so
Oyercame her that she fell to the floor
and died, as though the current had
passed through her. While cases Of
such extreme terror caused by light
ming are rare, even rarer than death
from the shock itself, fear of lightning
in a less intense form is by no means
uncommon. 1t is a notable fact that
courageous and healthy men are some
times very unpleasantly affected, if
not with fear, at all events with a
sense of acute discomfort, not only
after sharp flash and instant eXplo-
sion, but before a storm approaches.
During the progress of the tempest
their discomfort Increases. Some com
plain of lassitude and headache before
a storm, due, doubtless, to the absence
of ozone in the air; others, as the flashes
occur more frequently, experience
nausea, and sometimes an unpleasant
quivering about the abdomen. These
are symptoms that accompany acute
terror sometimes, but the sense of fear
is probably absent. How to account
for the phenomenon is not easy,
Supposing that its cause is purely OBJ
iectiye, why should some people suffer
and others escape? or why should the
same person suffer at one time and
not at another? AS general thing
children do not fear lightning or even
thunder; and adults who have long
suffered may overcome the dread in
various ways. A mother who would
take refuge in closet during storm,
for instance, and give way to the most
unreasoning terror, on being warned
to master her fears for the sake of the
wondering child may he entirely re.
lieved of apprehension during storm.
OF course, reason tells US that the
chance of being killed by lightning is
so small as to be hardly appreciable
According to the state census of 1878,
during that year eighteen people were
killed by lightning, while forty were
murdered; 1874 committed suicide; $50
were drowned, 279 were killed by falls
and 33 by kicks from horses and mules
Water, therefore, is twenty times as
dangerous as lightning, and the horse
and the mule are doubly deserving of
the terror which a thunder storm pro-
vokes. Moreover, it could be shown,
no doubt, that ninety per cent. OF the
deaths caused by lightning were due
to foolish exposure, such as taking
refuge beneath a tree or carrying an
umbrella during thunder Storm
These facts, or their general infer
ences, are pretty well known, but they
are powerless to prevent fright. One
solution of the mystery is that nerves
out of tone and tlaccid may be suscep-
tible to subtle influences unfelt by
healthy persons; another is that the
dread comes from habit rather than
anything else, and may be overcome
by the exercises of will power. There
is a current belief that lightning never
strikes twice in the same place.
Blackmore, the brilliant English novel;
ist, however, processes to have data to
prove the contrary principe, so far as
human beings are concerned, namely
that a person who has once been struck
invites a repetition of the blow, and is
in greater danger than one who has
never had that unpleasing experience.
-Booklyn Eagle.
lipanftc Enf fnrnrisa