At other times, garments, even those nearest the skin, are perforated, burnt, and torn, without the surface of the skin being injured. Thus the boot of a man who had been struck was so torn that it was reduced to ashes, while there was no trace of a wound on the foot. An extraordinary case in point happened at Vabreas (Vaucluse) in July, 1873. A peasant was in the fields when there was a violent clap of thunder. The electric fluid struck his head, shaved the left side, and completely burnt his hat. Then, continuing its route, it tore his garments, penetrated the length of his legs, and tore his trousers from top to bottom. Finally, it transported the unfortunate man, nearly naked, six or seven yards from his original place, and laid him on his stomach on a bush with his head hanging over the edge of a river. Sometimes, when the garments are seriously injured, we find slight injuries under the skin which do not always correspond to the places where the garment is most seriously affected. Lichtenberg quotes the case of a man who had his clothes cut as by the point of a knife from the shoulders to the feet, without the sign of a wound except a small sore on the foot under the buckle of the shoe. According to Howard, a man had his clothes torn to atoms without showing any trace of the action of the electric fluid on the surface of his body, except a light mark on the forehead. Sometimes, as we have already said, the inner garments are burnt while the outer ones are respected. A woman had her chemise scorched by the fire of heaven, while her dress and petticoats were spared. On June 14, 1774, lightning fell at Poitiers in a yard where a young cooper was working. It went under his right foot, burning his shoe, passed between his stocking and leg, singed the stocking without wounding the leg, burned the lining of his trousers, raised the epidermis of the abdomen, tore off a brass button which fastened his garment, and went off to twist a carpenter round in a neighbouring lane. Neither one nor the other felt the effects of this stroke of lightning. Finally, the clothes, above all the shoes, are unsewn carefully and without a tear, as though by the hand of a clever workman. Here are two cases in a thousand-- On June 18, 1872, at Grange Forestière, near Petit-Creusot, a man had his trousers unsewn from top to bottom and his shoes taken off. In the department of Eure-et-Loire, some peasants were engaged in binding sheaves, and their daughter, aged nine, was playing near them when a storm broke with great violence. "Let us go in, I am frightened," she cried, running to take refuge between her parents. "We will go in immediately, but we must finish binding before the rain comes on." "Then I will beg of the Good God to keep the thunder from us." "Do." And while the father and mother continued their work, the child went down on her knees, and with her hands over her eyes commenced her prayer.