=Destruction of Life.=--The last effect of lightning to which I shall refer, and which, perhaps, more than any other, strikes us with terror, is the sudden and utter extinction of life, when the lightning flash descends on man or on beast. So swift is this effect, in most cases, that death is, in all probability, absolutely painless, and the victim is dead before he can feel that he is struck. I cannot give you, with any degree of exactness, the number of people killed every year by lightning, because the record of such deaths has been hitherto very imperfectly kept, in almost all countries, and is, beyond doubt, very incomplete. But perhaps you will be surprised to learn that the number of deaths by lightning actually recorded is, on an average, in England about 22 every year, in France 80, in Prussia 110, in Austria 212, in European Russia 440.[25] So far as can be gathered from the existing sources of information, it would seem that the number of persons killed by lightning is, on the whole, about one in three of those who are struck. The rest are sometimes only stunned, sometimes more or less burned, sometimes made deaf for a time, sometimes partially paralyzed. On particular occasions, however, especially when the lightning falls on a large assembly of people, the number of persons struck down and slightly injured, in proportion to the number killed, is very much increased. An interesting case of this kind is reported by Mr. Tomlinson. “On the twenty-ninth of August, 1847, at the parish church of Welton, Lincolnshire, while the congregation were engaged in singing the hymn before the sermon, and the Rev. Mr. Williamson had just ascended the pulpit, the lightning was seen to enter the church from the belfry, and instantly an explosion occurred in the centre of the edifice. All that could move made for the door, and Mr. Williamson descended from the pulpit, endeavoring to allay the fears of the people. But attention was now called to the fact that several of the congregation were lying in different parts of the church, apparently dead, some of whom had their clothing on fire. Five women were found injured, and having their faces blackened and burned, and a boy had his clothes almost entirely consumed. A respected old parishioner, Mr. Brownlow, aged sixty-eight, was discovered lying at the bottom of his pew, immediately beneath one of the chandeliers, quite dead. There were no marks on the body, but the buttons of his waistcoat were melted, the right leg of his trousers torn down, and his coat literally burnt off. His wife in the same pew received no injury.”[26] [Illustration: VOLTA’S PISTOL; EXPLOSION CAUSED BY ELECTRIC SPARK.]