Lightning Stroke

Abstract

THE power delivered in a bolt of lightning has been a subject of awe since primitive times. It is therefore not unusual to find that most ancient accounts of persons struck by the lightning bolts of Zeus bear testimony to the deity's unfailing accuracy and the inevitable death of his victim. Lightning, in fact, presumably delivered without vindictive purpose, is anything but invariably fatal. Cases have been reported of one person struck by lightning and merely stunned, while his companion, who received the discharge after it emerged from the elbow of the target, was killed1; of the wholesale electrocution . . .