C's scorer only came to himself twenty minutes later as the result of
artificial respiration. At the moment of the lightning he was pressing
the electric button with his thumb in order to give the signal,
"Change the target;" he had a small hole in his thumb. This burn bled
later, and the wound took four weeks to heal. He had also some burns
on his legs.
D's scorer was holding the handle of the bell against his left cheek,
on a level with his eye. The handle, made of wood, burst. The sight of
his left eye is still affected, being very weak--the retina was
probably torn away. The day after the accident, the young man's face
became all inflamed, especially the part round the eyes. These were
quite hidden. This inflammation, of a bluish tint, is due to the
dilation of the small veins or of the capillaries.
Dr. Yersin, who attended several of the victims, attributes this
dilation to a paralysis of the vasomotor nerves, "_which would also
explain the tree-like form of the pictures seen upon the skin_," and
the transudation (?) of water across the small blood-vessels.
E's scorer had time to see the men on his left fall, in a green or
violet light. He had heard a general death-rattle-like chorus,
"Aôôô"--then, before he could make out what was happening, he found
himself driven up against the wall of the stand. He had a wound under
his feet; his thumb torn also, probably in trying to hold himself up
against the wall.
Behind the scorers were a dozen other riflemen and some spectators. To
the left the electric current left intact the rifles standing on the
rack. Quite near this, a man awaiting his turn fell, clinging on to
the neck of one of his comrades, also struck. Later he found his purse
in the middle of the stand.
In the case of several of the spectators, the burns were to be found
in separate sores. One had his hair burnt on one spot of about the
size of a five franc piece; others, who had burns upon their feet and
legs, are under the impression they saw a small blue flame at the tips
of their shoes.
The general feeling was at first merely that of stupefaction. Terror
did not come until afterwards. "Those who did not lose all
consciousness were half stunned." A young boy was noticed jammed up
against the wall, incapable of moving, but bewailing his inability to
get to his father, who lay dead upon the ground. Two men took flight
without throwing aside their guns; another ran as far as the village,
and some hours afterwards he was found asleep in a house "to which
there was nothing to take him." One young spectator, a stranger to the
neighbourhood, was seized with a partial paralysis of the brain; he
could not keep his balance when walking, and when questioned he would
recite the names of stations on a Swiss railway. He is better now.
This event will not be soon forgotten in the Joux valley. But Dr.
Yersin's explanation of the Ceraunic pictures does not seem to me to
be justified.