From the BMJ 25 Jan 1902. By Captain J G Berne RAMC.
The frequency with which men and animals have been struck by lightning in South Africa is in my experience remarkable. Thunderstorms are frequent and very violent during the wet or summer months in South Africa - November to April - and it may be taken as a general rule that the more mountainous the country the more frequent and severe the lightning. For instance, the districts of Wepener and Rouxville in the Free State, skirting the borders of Basutoland, are the scenes of very frequent thunderstorms; and in the Transvaal, the Wakkerstroom and Piet Retief districts, which lie close to the Swaziland border, are subject to the same atmospheric-disturbances. Natal, a very mountainous colony, is notorious for its thunderstorms.
During General Plumer's operations in the neighbourhood of Wepener in September, I901, a tent was struck by lightning, and four men out of six were injured. These men were seen by me shortly after the accident. They were sleeping in the tent with their feet towards the centre pole, and it appeared that the lightning struck the tent and passed down the wooden pole. In two cases the current seemed to have passed along the legs of the men, and to have passed out about the buttocks, causing severe burning of the superficial tissues. In the third case, the man described the injury as like a severe blow on the head, and complained of a severe headache. A circular wound was found at the occiput about the size of a florin, with a burnt track half an inch wide leading down towards the neck as far as the termination of the hair. The fourth case was slight, and beyond a feeling of an electric shock, the man was quite well. These three cases presented symptoms of shock, and there was extensive burning of the underclothing. I am unable to give details of the further progress of the men, as they were transferred to the civil hospital at Mafeting, in Basutoland, two days later. A point which I wish to bring to notice is the peculiar smell which is always present when-lightning is at all severe; it was very marked in this instance when I came into the tent, not the smell of burnt clothes or charred flesh, but a smell like dilute sulphuric acid.
The following are the notes of a case which occurred in the Eastern Transvaal:
On the evening of November 17th a patrol of about 500 men were returning to camp after a night march, when between 5 and 6 P.M. the worst thunderstorm which I have seen in South Africa broke over our heads. Fortunately for us, it was accompanied by a tropical downpour of rain, which must have saved a good many of us from being struck. In this storm, one officer and two men were badly hit, and several of us experienced slight shocks. Lieutenant-Colonel Porter, RAMC, describes his symptoms and experiences during the storm as follows:
I saw the flash of lightning coming towards me rather high up; it then seemed to me to come straight down over my head. The flash was rather circular in shape and pink in colour. I received a blow on the top of the head, just as if I had been struck by a mallet. I was knocked forward on my horse, and at that time my horse gave a jump forward, and he no doubt received the shock. For several days I had pain all over the scalp and down the back of my neck: pains were severe and neuralgic in character. A number of men were struck quite close to me, one of whom was carrying a log of wood on his right shoulder. The wood was split, and he was knocked from his horse. He was found to be afterwards suffering from paralysis of the right side, almost complete (both sensory and motor); next day he had somewhat recovered, and had slight power of grip in hand.
Sensation was gradually returning when I saw him last, and power of movement-arm and leg-had slightly improved. All the other men who received theshockrecoveredin a few hours. Prior to the flash there had been heavy rain for about two hours, and at the time we were struck the horses were over their hoofs in water. Had the ground been dry at the time, I think in all probability we would have had some fatal cases amongst those struck.
The slighter cases are of interest in the fact that some of us, including myself, had a distinct sensation of a most peculiar taste in the mouth. In my own case I cannot describe at better than that of the inhalation of burning sulphur.
Probably in the first instance the fact that the men who were struck in the tent were dry, and in the second instance all the men were thoroughly soaked, may help to explain the difference in the individual cases. The potential force of the electric current, of course, varies in different cases, and this may also account for the differences in results observed.
