In addition to these exhalations from the dead, there are other gases and vapours of a poisonous nature which are for the most part artificial products. It is seldom that individuals are exposed to breathe them in such quantity as to cause serious symptoms or to endanger life.

LIGHTNING. COLD. HEAT. STARVATION.

CHAPTER 60.

LIGHTNING-EFFECTS OF THE ELECTRIC CURRENT-CAUSE OF DEATH-POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES-CASES-LEGAL RELATIONS-COLD AN OCCASIONAL CAUSE OF DEATH-SYMPTOMS-CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ACCELERATE DEATH-POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES-CASE of murder BY COLD-EFFECT OF HEAT-STARVATION A RARE CAUSE OF DEATH-SYMPTOMS-APPEARANCES AFTER DEATH-LEGAL RELATIONS.

LIGHTNING AND ELECTRICITY.

Effects of the electric current.-Death by lightning is sufficiently common to require that a medical jurist should be prepared to understand the phenomena which accompany it: but there is a more important reason why he should devote some attention to this subject—that is, that the appearances left by the electric current on the human body sometimes closely resemble those produced by great mechanical violence. Thus a person may be found dead in an open field, or on the highway; his body may present the marks of contusion, laceration, or fracture; and to one unacquainted with the fact that such violence occasionally results from electricity, it might appear that the deceased had been maltreated and probably murdered. The greater number of deaths from the electric current take place during the spring and summer. According to one annual report, there were 24 deaths from lightning during the year, occurring in the following seasons:-Summer, 11; spring, 10; autumn, 2; winter, 1. Out of 103 deaths from lightning in five years (1852-56), there were 38 in the month of July and 22 in August.

In fourteen years (1853-65) 242 deaths from lightning were registered in England and Wales, of which 199 were males and 43 were females. The numbers in each year fluctuate considerably. Nearly all the deaths took place among persons engaged in work out of doors, i.e. field-labourers and others. We less often hear of persons being killed by lightning in dwellings. In 1880 there were 24 deaths registered from lightning.

Cause of death.-The electric current appears to act fatally by producing a violent shock to the brain and nervous system. In general there is no sense of pain, and the person falls at once into a state of unconsciousness. In a case which did not prove fatal, the person, who was seen soon after the accident, was found labouring under the following symptoms :-insensibility; deep, slow, and interrupted respiration; entire relaxation of the muscular system; the pulse soft and slow; the pupils dilated, but sensible to light. (Med. Gaz.' vol. 14, p. 654.) It will be seen that these are the usual symptoms of concussion of the brain. The effect of a slight shock is that of producing stunning; and when persons who have been severely struck recover, they suffer from noises in the ears, paralysis, and other

EFFECTS.

APPEARANCES IN THE BODY.

127 symptoms of nervous disorder. (Med. Times,' July 15, 1848.) Insanity has even been known to follow a stroke of lightning. (Conolly's 'Rep. of Hanwell,' 1839.) In one case the person remained delirious for three days, and when he recovered he had completely lost his memory. (Lancet,' Aug. 3, 1839, p. 582.) A boy, æt. 4, received a severe shock on May 11th, was seized with tetanus on the 13th, and died in four hours. ('Med. Times and Gaz.' May 26, 1855.) In another instance an old man who took shelter under a tree felt as if a vivid flash had struck him in the face: he did not fall, but he became almost blind. He suffered for some days from frontal headache, and loss of sight supervened. (Med. Times and Gaz.' July 24, 1858.)

It may be observed of the effects of lightning, generally, that death is either immediate, or the individual recovers. A person may, however, linger, and die from the effects of severe lacerations or burns indirectly produced. A case occurred in London, in 1838, where death was thus caused indirectly by the effects of electricity. The following case of recovery illustrates further the action of the electric current :-Three persons were struck by lightning at the same time. In one, a healthy man, æt. 26, the symptoms were severe. An hour and a half after the stroke he lay completely unconscious, as if in a fit of apoplexy; his pulse was below 60, full and hard; his respiration snoring; his pupils dilated and insensible. There were frequent twitchings of the arms and hands, the thumbs were fixed and immovable, and the jaws firmly clenched. Severe spasms then came on, so that four men could scarcely hold the patient in his bed; and his body was drawn to the left side. When these symptoms had abated he was copiously bled, cold was applied to the head, a blister to the nape of the neck, and mustard-poultices to the legs. Stimulating injections and opium were also administered. In the course of twenty-four hours consciousness slowly returned, and the man soon completely recovered. The only external injury discoverable was a red streak, as broad as a finger, which extended from the left temple over the neck and chest: this disappeared completely in a few days. (Brit. and For. Med. Rev.' Oct. 1842.) These red streaks or marks sometimes assume a remarkable disposition over the skin. (See case, Casper's 'Vierteljahrsschr.' Ap. 1863, p. 308.)

Appearances after death. The suddenness of death is such that the body sometimes preserves the attitude in which it was struck. (Med. Times and Gaz.' 1860, I. p. 167.) Generally speaking there are, externally, marks of contusion and laceration about the spot where the electricity has entered or passed out; sometimes a severe lacerated wound is found; on other occasions there has been no wound or laceration, but an extensive ecchymosis, which, according to Meyer, is most commonly seen on the skin of the back. In several instances there were no marks of external violence. (Med. Times,' May 3, 1845, p. 82.) The clothes are in almost all cases rent, and partly singed, giving rise to a peculiar odour of burningsometimes even rolled up in shreds and carried to a distance. They are Occasionally found partially burnt, but this is not a frequent occurrence. Metallic substances about the person present traces of fusion, and articles of steel have been observed to have acquired magnetic polarity. It has frequently been noticed that, while much violence has been done to the dress, the parts of the body covered by it, have escaped injury. A youth wore at the time of the accident a pair of strong leather boots: these were torn to shreds, probably owing to the presence of iron nails in the soles, but the feet of the deceased presented no marks of injury. An accident by lightning occurred by which a healthy man was instantaneously killed. A cap which the man wore had a hole through it; his hair was singed, his shoes were burst open, and his trousers torn. The woodwork of the building down

which the electricity passed was merely split, and there was no mark of burning. In several instances, the wood of trees which have been struck by the electricity has presented only the appearance of rending by mechanical force.

Wounds and burns are sometimes met with on the body. The wounds have commonly been lacerated punctures, like stabs produced by a blunt dagger. In the case of a person who was struck but not killed, a deep wound was produced in one thigh, almost laying bare the femoral artery. This person was struck while in the act of opening an umbrella during a storm. Fractures of the bones have not been commonly observed: in one case the skull was severely fractured, and the bones depressed. (Pouillet, 'Traité de Phys. Elect. Atm.') In 1864, Mackintosh was called to see three persons who had been struck by lightning about twenty minutes previously. They had taken shelter under a haystack, which had been set on fire by the same flash. 1. A boy, æt. 10, was then able to walk, although unable to move his legs immediately after the occurrence. All that he remembered was-he saw the stack on fire, and called to his father; he felt dizzy all over, and unable to move. His hair and clothes were not singed, and the metallic buttons on his dress showed no signs of fusion. On removing his clothes a slight odour of singeing was perceptible. He complained of pain at the lower part of the abdomen. There were several red steaks, of about a finger's breadth, running obliquely downwards and inwards on either side of the chest to the middle line in front of the abdomen; they then descended over the pubes, and were lost in the perineum. It does not appear that there was any abrasion of the skin. This boy perfectly recovered; the red streaks gradually disappeared, and could hardly be traced four days after the injury. 2. Another boy, æt. 11, lay prostrate and unconscious, with an expression of terror and suffering; he frothed at the mouth, moaned piteously, and flung his legs and arms about in all directions. The respiration was deep, slow, and laborious; the heart palpitating, the pulse weak and very irregular; the pupils were dilated, and insensible to light. There were in this case several red streaks converging from the neck and shoulders to the middle of the chest-bone, and passing over the abdomen until they were lost on the pubes. There were similar streaks radiating for a few inches from the tuberosity of the ischium on each hip in different directions, until they were lost in the skin. It appears that this boy was in a sitting posture when struck. The hair on the back of his head and neck was singed, and the peculiar odour of singeing was perceived, although his clothes showed no traces of burning, nor the metallic buttons of fusion. The boy became conscious in five hours, and rapidly recovered. The red streaks gradually disappeared, leaving streaks of a scaly glistening white appearance, which ultimately left no trace of their existence. 3. A man, æt. 46, was, like the two others, in a sitting posture, and he appeared to have been killed on the spot: he had not moved. The countenance was placid, and the pupils were widely dilated. The electricity had produced a large lacerated wound of the scalp, at the junction of the occipital with the parietal bones, but without causing any fracture. It appeared to have passed down each side of the head, between the soft parts and the cranium. On the left side it had passed downwards in front to the left ear, and terminated at the side of the neck, rupturing blood-vessels and muscles, and causing swelling of the parts, with effusion of blood. It presented the appearance of an extensive bruise caused by mechanical violence, On the right side the current had passed down to the space above the collar-bone, causing lividity and swelling of the right ear as well as of the adjacent skin; and it terminated in a dark-blue mangled patch of skin, in which there

DEATH FROM LIGHTNING.

ECCHYMOSES.

BURNS.

129 were several free communications with the surface. The hair on the back of the head was slightly singed, and that in front of the chest was singed quite close to the skin, but the hair which covered the wound in the scalp, where the current had entered, was uninjured. The clothes, which were at the time very wet, were neither torn nor burnt, and the metallic buttons were not fused. The hat was not examined. The left side-pocket of the trousers contained several lucifer-matches and a tin tobacco-box, which were unaffected. The right pocket contained a knife, which was strongly magnetic. The body was placed in a warm room, and cadaveric rigidity came on in fourteen hours after death. ('Lancet,' 1864, II. p. 118.) No post-mortem examination was allowed. It is probable that the brain sustained severe injury. These cases singularly present the effects of lightning in three degrees-the effect of a slight shock in No. 1, of a severe shock in No. 2, and of a fatal shock in No. 3. There was but little bodily injury in either case, and no appearance of burning. The marks on the skin in Nos. 1 and 2 could not have been mistaken for violence, but the wound to the scalp and the injuries to the neck in No. 3 might have been ascribed to the violence of another, had not the circumstances been fully known. The clothes probably escaped burning or tearing by reason of their being wet, and thus readily conducting the electric current.

Ecchymoses of greater or less extent are sometimes found on the bodies of those who have been killed by lightning. The ecchymoses have been occasionally disposed in an arborescent form over the surface of the skin. When persons have been killed while standing under or near trees, and such arborescent ecchymoses are found, they have been fancifully described as presenting the picture of a tree. This has even formed a subject for medical evidence. ('Austral. Med. Jour.' Sept. 1870, p. 295.) A youth was killed by lightning. There were marks of contusion on the left side of the body, and it was noticed that there was extreme rigidity on this side. The hair on the back of the head was burnt off. The pupils of both eyes were much dilated, and blood oozed from the left nostril. The surgeon then stated that he observed on the skin of the chest the perfect impression of a young tree, inverted, of a dark colour, as if tattooed on the skin. It resembled the trees which grew near the place of the accident. The deceased, when struck, had two or three layers of woollen cloth buttoned over his chest: his cap was torn to pieces. The trousers on the left side were rent from the hip to the stocking, which was torn open as well as the boot. The deceased had died from injury to the brain.

The burns occasionally found on the bodies of persons who have been struck by lightning have been ascribed to the ignition of the clothes. It appears, however, from the subjoined cases, that burns even of a severe kind may be the result of a direct agency of the electricity itself upon the body. Geoghegan met with the case of a girl who had been struck by lightning; there was a burning of the thigh and buttocks to the first and second degrees, but the clothes did not show any signs of combustion. A man, æt. 23, while engaged in milking a cow in a wooden shed during a severe thunderstorm, suddenly observed a vivid flash of lightning which killed the cow instantly, and inflicted severe injuries upon himself. Fisher saw him sixteen hours after the accident, and found a severe burn on his person, extending from the right hip to the shoulder, and covering a large portion of the front and side of the body. His mind was then wandering, and there were symptoms of inflammatory fever. The man was confined to his bed for seventeen days, and at the end of that time the injuries had not perfectly healed. On examining his dress the right sleeve of his shirt was found burnt to shreds, but there was no material burning of any other part. The case shows that the dress may

VOL. II.

K

be burnt without the surface of the body being simultaneously injured ; and further, that a burn may be produced on the body, although the clothes covering the part may have escaped combustion. Eight persons were struck by lightning, and on the bodies of some of these there were marks of severe burns. The dresses were, in parts, much singed. These cases show, in a striking manner, the intense heat evolved in the passage of electricity through the clothes and body. The persons struck were benumbed or paralysed in various degees, but all ultimately recovered. The burns were so severe that some months elapsed before they were entirely healed. (Glasgow Med. Jour.' Oct. 1859, p. 257.) A man was struck by lightning. Externally there was a burn upon the nape of the neck, where a metallic watch-guard rested; and from the point where the current of electricity left the chain, the skin was blistered in a straight line down to the feet, and the hair of the pubes was scorched in its course. His intellect was confused, and his general condition was that of collapse. With the aid of stimulants he became sufficiently restored to describe his feelings. There was paralysis of the lower extremities, with loss of sensibility (anesthesia), and retention of urine. He was deaf, and complained of a noise in his ears like thunder; he had some difficulty in articulating, pain in swallowing, and a peculiar metallic taste in his mouth. The anesthesia passed away in half an hour, but he did not completely recover the use of his limbs for four days; the bladder was paralysed for twenty-four hours, and by the catheter a highly-coloured urine with abundance of phosphates was removed. The bowels were confined. All these symptoms gradually disappeared, excepting slight deafness; and he was discharged convalescent.

The following is an account of the external and internal appearances found in the body of a healthy middle-aged labourer, who was killed by lightning :-The man was working in the field with several other labourers, just after a thunderstorm had passed over and had apparently subsided. He was endeavouring to kindle a light with a flint and steel, when the lightning struck him. For a moment after the shock he stood still, and then fell heavily to the ground, dead. The electricity had entered at the upper part of his forehead, perforating and tearing his hat at that part: it seemed then to have been divided into two currents, which passed down the sides of the body, along the lower limbs and out at the feet. On the upper part of the forehead was found a soft swelling, of a darkblue colour, and about the size of the palm of a hand: the hair which covered it was uninjured. From this spot two dark-red streaks proceeded in different directions. One of these passed to the left, running over the temple, in front of the left ear, down the neck to the surface of the chest, over which it passed between the left nipple and the armpit; and so made its way over the body to the left inguinal region, where it formed a large, irregular, scorched-looking patch on the skin. From this point the dark-red streak again continued its downward course, passing over the great trochanter, then along the outer surface of the left leg to the back of the foot, where it terminated in several small dark-blue spots. The other streak, which proceeded from the ecchymosed swelling on the forehead, passed directly to the right ear, which was considerably swollen and of a dark-blue colour: from the ear it ran downwards and backwards along the neck, crossed the right border of the scapula, and eventually reached the right groin, where a scorched patch of skin, similar to that in the left groin, was found. From this part the discoloured streak continued down the outer side of the right leg, to its termination on the back of the foot, just as on the left side. Although the hair on the forehead, as well as that which occurred in any part of the track taken by the