In the province of Sibacoa, Cuba, in August, 1823, lightning imprinted
on the trunk of a big tree a picture of a bent nail, which was to be
found, bent in the opposite direction, embedded in one of the upper
branches.
On July 24, 1852, in a plantation at St. Vincent in Cuba, a palm tree
was struck by lightning, and engraved on its dried leaves was a
picture of pine trees which surrounded it at a distance of nearly 400
yards.
Dr. Sestier tells us that after the 1850 meeting of the American
Association, a person was killed by lightning while standing up near a
whitewashed wall, and that his silhouette was fixed upon the wall in a
dark colour.
With such facts before us, we seem bound to believe in the existence
of some kind of especial rays, ceraunic rays, emitted by lightning,
and capable of photographing alike on the skin of human beings,
animals, and plants, more or less distinct pictures of objects far and
near.
Decidedly, we have much to learn in this as well as in all the other
branches of knowledge.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Academie des Sciences, Août 3, 1868.
[2] "Conjectures physiques sur les plus extraordinaires effets du
Tonnerre." Paris, MDCXCVI.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
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Transcriber's note:
Obvious typographical errors were corrected.
Duplicate title at the beginning was deleted.
Hyphenation and accent variants were changed to the most frequently
used in the original. Those occurring equally were retained (for
example: rainwater and rain-water).