An account of a very extraordinary effect of lightning on a bullock : at Swanborow, in the parish of Iford near Lewes, in the county of Sussex / in sundry letters from Mr. James Lambert ... and one from William Green ... to William Henly. Read at the Royal Society, May 1, 1776.

  • Lambert, James, 1725-1788.
Date:
1776
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of a very extraordinary effect of lightning on a bullock : at Swanborow, in the parish of Iford near Lewes, in the county of Sussex / in sundry letters from Mr. James Lambert ... and one from William Green ... to William Henly. Read at the Royal Society, May 1, 1776. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I 9 EffeB of Lightning on a Bullock. remember perfectly well, that all the cattle that I have feen, which were killed by lightning, were either black, brown, or red, without any white at all in them. I muft obferve to you, that this bullock is both marked and aifeCted by the ftroke exactly alike on both Tides. I am, See. HAVING been favoured with thefe letters, by gen¬ tlemen of the flriCteft veracity, and likewife particularly curious in their enquiries, I have not the leaft reafon to entertain a doubt of the fails they communicate; and as they may, perhaps, be productive of Tome important dif- coveries, refpeCting the different colours of bodies as conductors of electricity, I imagined, that it would not be improper to lay them before the members of the Royal Society. To the preceding paper I would beg leave to add the following queries: i ft, Are not the dark-coloured hairs flronger in their texture than the white or light-coloured ones w? 2dly, If the dark-coloured hairs are the ftrongeft, may not this be owing to their being more deeply rooted, and partaking more largely of that nutritive matter which produces and fupports hair? And does not the change of dark-coloured hair to grey, in perfons advanced in years, Teem to favour this fuppofition ? (a) This is a fa£t fo well known to houfe-painters, that they do not admit a dark hair into their brufhes, as they would ocealion a difagreeahle roughnefs in their work, j. cqventry. 3dly> B