ether. Such a top,
rotating in a dark room and illuminated by an electric spark, appears
motionless, each distinct colour being clearly seen. Professor Dove
has found that a flash of lightning produces the same effect. During
a thunderstorm he put a colour-top in exceedingly rapid motion, and
found that every flash revealed the top as a motionless object with
its colours distinct. If illuminated solely by a flash of lightning,
the motion of all bodies on the earth's surface would, as Dove has
remarked, appear suspended. A cannon-ball, for example, would have
its flight apparently arrested, and would seem to hang motionless in
space as long as the luminous impression which revealed the ball
remained upon the eye.

If, then, a rifle-bullet move with sufficient rapidity to destroy life
without the interposition of sensation, much more is a flash of
lightning competent to produce this effect. Accordingly, we have
well-authenticated cases of people being struck senseless by lightning
who, on recovery, had no memory of pain. The following circumstantial
case is described by Hemmer:

On June 30, 1788, a soldier in the neighbourhood of Mannheim, being
overtaken by rain, placed himself under a tree, beneath which a woman
had previously taken shelter. He looked upwards to see whether the
branches were thick enough to afford the required protection, and, in
doing so, was struck by lightning, and fell senseless to the earth.
The woman at his side experienced the shock in her foot, but was not
struck down. Some hours afterwards the man revived, but remembered
nothing about what had occurred, save the fact of his looking up at
the branches. This was his last act of consciousness, and he passed
from the conscious to the unconscious condition without pain. The
visible marks of a lightning stroke are usually insignificant: the
hair is sometimes burnt; slight wounds are observed; while, in some
instances, a red streak marks the track of the discharge over the
skin.

Under ordinary circumstances, the discharge from a small Leyden jar is
exceedingly unpleasant to me. Some time ago I happened to stand in
the presence of a numerous audience, with a battery of fifteen large
Leyden jars charged beside me. Through some awkwardness on my part, I
touched a wire leading from the battery, and the discharge went
through my body. Life was absolutely blotted out for a very sensible
interval, without a trace of pain. Ina second or so