Strange Effects of Lightning.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 368, 15 May 1889, Page 3

Strange Effects of Lightning.

An English correspondent ' writes : — 'A sad case has beea. brought to my notice > during the last week, through an application of a relieving officer to take a" child, oged 8 year?, to the county pauper luriabic asylum, lie reported tha~t when the nurse had the child on her lap, soon after he was born,, sitting in front cf the bedroom tire, a tremendous thunderstorm was in progress, and 1 thenur&e declares the lightning came down the chimney, and ashes and fire were tin own out on k 'the (loor. She herself felt perfectly dazed, and the child deemed kind of para--lysod. The head of the child was towards the fire. The child has never spoken, and has developed a strong desire to bite and scratch* everything, to catch and kill Hie?, birds, oiv, anything alive, so that the poor j parents have been obliged to lie the child by'a rope for many years to a s>tapie in the wall, until one day they had found he had ; gnawed the rope bh tough, had seized on a young brotb,ei\ put both hands. ,to his throat and cried to 'strangle* 'him. i Atter this a chain was substituted tor ' the' • rope. The asylum authorities* could (idfc' lake vory young children, but<no*w perm'ippion having been obtained, the child williat once be sent i there, toJbhe great relief of the parents and neighbours. Other, children of these parents are. fine, strong, ' and healthy. Whet-In r this identical child was 1 injured 'by the 'lightning or not, the 'nurse, parents, 'and neighbours all firmly believe v&o,v &o, and I can vouch for the state of the child and its peculiarities:*'