"The Thunder-Struck and The Boxer" by Samuel Warren (first appeared in anonymously in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, September 1831; reprinted as the thirteenth chapter of Warren's Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician, 1835; reprinted in Tales of Terror from Blackwood's Magazine, edited by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick, 1995; reprinted in The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Horror Anthology, edited by Andrew Barger, 2010)
Passages, a collection of fictional case histories as sensational tales, was certainly Warren's most popular book, and parts, at least, mat have been autobiographical. although highly embellished. The author, who did study medicine for two years, but never took a degree, instead switching gears and being admitted to the bar in 1837. Warren, in his preface to the 1855 fifth edition of the book, stated, 'For six year I was actively engaged in the practical study of physic." The influence of Passages is impressive; the book itself is said to have influenced Charles Dickens in Bleak House, with one chapter specifically influencing Pickwick Papers, another chapter has been traced as an influence on Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and "The Thunder-Struck and The Boxer" has been suggested to have influenced Pope's "The Fall of the house of Usher." Passages was also one of the first books to use professional anecdotes as a backdrop to the story, a practice now used in much of modern crime fiction. Many of the tales in Passages first appeared inBlackwood's; such stories actually became a subset of the short story genre known as "Blackwood's fiction" -- which used then supernatural, or the supposedly supernatural, in the telling.
"The Thunder-Struck and The Boxer" begins on the fated day of July 10, 18--. It had been foretold by "certain enthusiasts, religious as were as philosophic, that the earth was to be destroyed that very day." In other words, the Day of Judgment. People, whether they believed or not, were very anxious and frightened. People openly questioned whether the earth would be consumed by fire, or explode into small fragments. That day also happened to be dark and gloomy, with a terrible storm approaching. The narrator's wife and children were frightened, as was their houseguest, the beautiful and gracious Miss Agnes P---. There was a flash of lightning -- the brightest the narrator had ever seen -- that lasted for more than five seconds, followed immediately by a thunderous roar. The the lightning and thunder struck again, just as horribly as it had the first time. His wife fainted in terror. As he revived her, he noticed that Agnes was not about. A servant old him that he had seen Agnes heading upstairs just moments before the horrible lightning struck. Agnes did not respond to his calls and he went in search of her. When he found her she was in a disheveled state, paler than he had ever seen her before, her hair in complete disarray, her clothing rumpled. Agnes was catatonic and unable to speak of whatever horror she had faced. She could not use her limbs. Her eyes could not follow him and he wondered if she might have been struck blind. He feared she might have been struck by lightning, but there appeared to be no sign of that. His efforts to revive her were fruitless.
No time was to be lost. He "determined to resort at once to strong antispasmodic treatment. I bled her from the arm freely, applied blisters behind the ears, immersed her feet, which, together with her hands, were cold as marble, in hot water, and endeavoured to force into her mouth a little opium and ether. [...] Though the water was hot enough to enough almost to par boil her tender feet, it produced no visible effect on the circulation or the state of the skin, and feeling a strong determination of blood towards the region of the head and neck, I determined to have her cupped." [NOTE TO ANY MEDICAL SURROGATE I MIGHT HAVE: For the love of Heaven, don't have me treated by any doctor in 1832!] having determined the need for cupping, he then sent for an apothecary to bring the needed equipment. Before he arrived, though, there was an urgent summons for the doctor and he had to go, leaving it to the apothecary to cup Agnes.
Which brings us to THE BOXER. His name was Bill -----, and he was a professional boxer and a brute, both physically and morally. Returning home during from a prize fight during that horrible storm, and very drunk, his horse shied when a lightning bolt struck, throwing him and trampling his leg, crushing his foot. Our narrator said that he was a physician and not a surgeon (which was needed) but the man bullied him into staying and doing what he could until the surgeon arrived. The boxer spent his time blaspheming, issuing threats, and bullying his wife and the doctor. Then a violent blast of lightning came, blinding him and (possibly) paralyzing him.
But what of Agnes? She recovers days later, suddenly, for no apparent reason, and issues a dire warning to her fiancee. Agnes gives the one word warning, then died. And within a year, he, too, dies.
And that's it. 'I have no mystery to solve, no denouement to make. I tell the facts as they occurred, and hope they may not be told in vain!"
An intriguing tale, with a hint of the supernatural. The terror involved, however, is natural, coming from the violent forces of nature, the willingness of a person to believe in the illogical, and the innate bestiality of humans. Are there forces beyond out ken at work? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Or are we each the source of our own downfall?
Samuel Warren went on to write two novels. Ten Thousand-a-Year (1839) was a social satire based on a contemporary forgery case, and enjoyed moderate success. Less successful was Now and Then (1847), a proto-detective novel (also based on a real cause, which offered a Methodist perspective on the moral need for reform of the criminal justice system. Warren, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1835. A practicing barrister, Warren was made Recorder of Hull in 1852, served as an MP from 1856 to 1859, and was a Master in Lunacy from 1859m to 1877. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1835.
Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician is available to be read on the internet, as is the September 1852 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
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