In Dr. Sestier's learned work, vol. ii. p. 45, we read the following case observed at Montpellier:—
"Accidit apud Monspelienses ut fulmen cadens in domum vicarii generalis de Grassi pudendum puellae ancillae pilos abraserit ut Bartassius in muliere sibi familiari olim factum fuisse."
Toaldo Richard has described similar experiences, and d'Hombres Firmas has described several others:—
A number of people were assembled at Mas-Lacoste, near Nîmes, when lightning penetrated to where they were. A girl of twenty-six was thrown over and became unconscious; when she came to her senses, she could hardly support herself or walk, and felt a great deal of pain in the centre of her body. When she was alone with her friends, they examined her, and they saw "non sine miratione pudendum perustum ruberrimum, labia tumefacta pilos deficientes usque ad bulbum punctosque nigros pro pilis, inde cutim rugosissimam; ejus referunt amicae primum barbatissimam et hoc facto semper imberbem esse."
Lightning is indeed a joker, but so it has always been.
In most cases the hair grows again, but sometimes the system is completely destroyed, and the victim must either wear a wig or go bald.
We have already spoken further back of the case of Dr. Gaultier, of Claubry, who was struck one day by globular lightning, near Blois, and had his beard shaved off and destroyed for ever; it never grew again. He nearly died of a curious malady, his head swelled to the size of a metre and a half in circumference.
We also hear of corpses of people who have been struck, which show no other injury than a complete or partial epilation.
For example, a woman who was struck in the road had the hair completely pulled out of the top of her head.
On July 25, 1900, a farm servant, Pierre Roux, was killed while in the act of loading a waggon of hay. The only trace the lightning left behind it was to completely scorch the beard of its victim.