The following authenticated instances of this singular phenomenon have
been communicated to the Royal Society by Andrés Poey, Director of the
Observatory at Havana:
Benjamin Franklin, in 1786, stated that about twenty years
previous, a man who was standing opposite a tree that had just been
struck by “a thunderbolt” had on his breast an exact representation
of that tree.
In the New-York _Journal of Commerce_, August 26th, 1853, it is
related that “a little girl was standing at a window, before which
was a young maple-tree; after a brilliant flash of lightning, a
complete image of the tree was found imprinted on her body.”
M. Raspail relates that, in 1855, a boy having climbed a tree for
the purpose of robbing a bird’s nest, the tree was struck, and
the boy thrown upon the ground; on his breast the image of the
tree, with the bird and nest on one of its branches, appeared very
plainly.
M. Olioli, a learned Italian, brought before the Scientific
Congress at Naples the following four instances: 1. In September
1825, the foremast of a brigantine in the Bay of St. Arniro
was struck by lightning, when a sailor sitting under the mast
was struck dead, and on his back was found an impression of a
horse-shoe, similar even in size to that fixed on the mast-head. 2.
A sailor, standing in a similar position, was struck by lightning,
and had on his left breast the impression of the number 4 4, with a
dot between the two figures, just as they appeared at the extremity
of one of the masts. 3. On the 9th October 1836, a young man was
found struck by lightning; he had on a girdle, with some gold
coins in it, which were imprinted on his skin in the order they
were placed in the girdle,--a series of circles, with one point of
contact, being plainly visible. 4. In 1847, Mme. Morosa, an Italian
lady of Lugano, was sitting near a window during a thunderstorm,
and perceived the commotion, but felt no injury; but a flower which
happened to be in the path of the electric current was perfectly
reproduced on one of her legs, and there remained permanently.
M. Poey himself witnessed the following instance in Cuba. On July
24th, 1852, a poplar-tree in a coffee-plantation was struck by
lightning, and on one of the large dry leaves was found an exact
representation of some pine-trees that lay 367 yards distant.
M. Poey considers these lightning impressions to have been produced
in the same manner as the electric images obtained by Moser, Riess,
Karster, Grove, Fox Talbot, and others, either by statical or dynamical
electricity of different intensities. The fact that impressions are
made through the garments is easily accounted for by their rough
texture not preventing the lightning passing through them with the
impression. To corroborate this view, M. Poey mentions an instance of
lightning passing down a chimney into a trunk, in which was found an
inch depth of soot, which must have passed through the wood itself.