Here is an observation, similar to the last:—
In 1894, lightning fell on two poplars near Ignon, in the territory of Saulx-le-Duc (Côte-d'Or). A neighbouring pond, which measured 10 yards in length by 5 in width, was also struck. The owner states that all the fish, to the number of about a thousand, were killed.
Another more curious case still:—
One day the fish in an aquarium placed in a drawing-room were struck. They were all found lying dead on the floor. The glass which formed the bottom of the vessel was twisted and coated with a thick bed of yellowish substance.
If we study the effects of lightning on animals from the point of view of the injuries which it produces, we can make some very interesting remarks.
More often the hair of animals is injured or burnt. Sometimes the spark acts on the skin over a large surface of the body of the animal. Thus, two horses had their hair singed nearly all over their bodies, and more particularly on the leg and under the stomach. At other times the hair is only burnt in certain places.
Lightning struck a young four-year-old ox which was red with white spots. It burnt and removed all the white spots and left the red hair.
But generally we find one or more furrows of different kinds. The skin is seldom intact under injured hair. It is nearly always more or less burnt. And one often notices extravasations of blood which correspond to the injuries of the epidermis, in the subcutaneous cellular tissue.
In some cases, the fulminant fluid only attacks the colour of the hair of the animal.
The fracture of the bones or the ablation of a limb is often observed on animals which have been struck.