In its course the lightning traveled down the
clothes, tearing them posteriorly, and completely stripping the
patient. The boots were split up behind and the laces torn out.
This patient, however, made a good recovery. Beatson mentions an
instance in which an explosion of a shell completely tore off the
left leg of a sergeant instructor, midway between the knee and
ankle. It was found that the foot and lower third of the leg had
been completely denuded of a boot and woolen stocking, without
any apparent abrasion or injury to the skin. The stocking was
found in the battery and the boot struck a person some distance
off. The stocking was much torn, and the boot had the heel
missing, and in one part the sole was separated from the upper.
The laces in the upper holes were broken but were still present
in the lower holes. The explanation offered in this case is
similar to that in analogous cases of lightning-stroke, that is,
that the gas generated by the explosion found its way between the
limb and the stocking and boot and stripped them off.
There is a curious collection of relics, consisting of the
clothes of a man struck by lightning, artistically hung in a
glass case in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons,
London, and the history of the injury, of which these remnants
are the result, is given by Professor Stewart, the curator, as
follows: At half past four on June 8, 1878, James Orman and
others were at work near Snave, in Romney Marsh, about eight
miles from Ashford.
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