rt
quotes the case of Raspail of a man of twenty-two who, while climbing a
tree to a bird's nest, was struck by lightning, and afterward showed
upon his breast a picture of the tree, with the nest upon one of its
branches. Although in the majority of cases the photographs resembled
trees, there was one case in which it resembled a horse-shoe; another,
a cow; a third, a piece of furniture; a fourth, the whole surrounding
landscape. This theory of lightning-photographs of neighboring objects
on the skin has probably arisen from the resemblance of the burns due
to the ramifications of the blood-vessels as conductors, or to peculiar
electric movements which can be demonstrated by positive charges on
lycopodium powder.

A lightning-stroke does not exhaust its force on a few individuals or
objects, but sometimes produces serious manifestations over a large
area, or on a great number of people. It is said that a church in the
village of Chateauneuf, in the Department of the Lower Alps, in France,
was struck by three successive lightning strokes on July 11, 1819,
during the installation of a new pastor. The company were all thrown
down, nine were killed and 82 wounded. The priest, who was celebrating
mass, was not affected, it is believed, on account of his silken robe
acting as an insulator. Bryant of Charlestown, Mass., has communicated
the particulars of a stroke of lightning on June 20, 1829, which
shocked several hundred persons. The effect of this discharge was felt
over an area of 172,500 square feet with nearly the same degree of
intensity. Happily, there was no permanent injury recorded. Le Conte
reports that a person may be killed when some distance--even as far as
20 miles away from the storm--by what Lord Mahon calls the "returning
stroke."

Skin-grafting is a subject which has long been more or less familiar to
medical men, but which has only recently been developed to a
practically successful operation. The older surgeons knew that it was
possible to reunite a resected nose or an amputated finger, and in
Hunter's time tooth-replantation was quite well known. Smellie has
recorded an instance in which, after avulsion of a nipple in suckling,
restitution was effected. It is not alone to the skin that grafting is
applicable; it is used in the cornea, nerves, muscles, bones, tendons,
and teeth. Wolfer has been successful in transplanting the mucous
membranes of frogs, rabbits, and pigeons to a portion of mucous
m