. Thunder and lighting. he dormitory and just above thedoors. The depth of this frieze is about two feet; itslength is almost equal to that of the dormitory; thedesigns upon it are of flames darting up and down froma kind of wide band which occupies the centre of thefrieze throughout its length. I have had a portion of this frieze copied, so asto give the reader an idea of it, but it must be admittedthat it is difficult to suggest the variety of mumces inthe original. Some people declare that in the midst ofall the colours in the flames, faces of men may bedescried as well as of marmosets and
. Thunder and lighting. he dormitory and just above thedoors. The depth of this frieze is about two feet; itslength is almost equal to that of the dormitory; thedesigns upon it are of flames darting up and down froma kind of wide band which occupies the centre of thefrieze throughout its length. I have had a portion of this frieze copied, so asto give the reader an idea of it, but it must be admittedthat it is difficult to suggest the variety of mumces inthe original. Some people declare that in the midst ofall the colours in the flames, faces of men may bedescried as well as of marmosets and demons ; but thosewho are less richly endowed with imagination can seenothing of all this. On p. 274 is a copy of the design by P. Lamy. At this pei-iod, physicists were of the belief thatlightning was an exhalation of nitre and sulphur, T 274 THUNDER AND LIGHTNING acting something after the fashion of powder, and ableto bum up or throw over everything encountered on itsroute. In this girdle traced by the lightning, the. author sees a scattering of all the constituents of thebrass wire, transformed into all kinds of colours due tothe dilation of the copper, melted and vaporized overthe width of two feet, the colours, in which yellowpredominates, varying according to the thickness andthe inequalities of the projection. The second case examined into by P. Lamy, wasthat of what happened in the church of Sauveur atLagny, when it was struck by lightning on July 18,1689. This is one of the most astotinding in the entirehistory of the subject. Let us see what our author hasto tell us : — If we were to look for some excuse for the strange-ness and diversity of the peoples sayings and doings inconnection with the Lagny case of lightning, we should PICTURES MADE BY LIGHTNING 275 assuredly find it in the extraordinary nature of the caseitself. For what would naturally be the effect upon mindsaccustomed to see mysteries in the most transparentlynatural events, minds whose philosophy neve
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectlightning, bookyear19
