Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-05-05
A DelusiOn Exposed by the Micro
scope.

LET us instance noble service rem
dered our common humanity by the mi
croscope.
How often, like some spectacular scenes
in drama, do we find in the pages of the
Old-World history passages of deep pa
thos and fierce passion, and both, alas
occurring as the offspring of religious SUI.
perstitiOn. So there were miraculous ap.
partitions of blood, one while in rain from
the heavens, and again in spots in the
dwellings of God and of men. OF course
these were portents of most dire signiti-
canoe. The recital is too long for even
in Christian chronicles il covers a thousand
years In 1862, shocking TO tell, while
ministering at the altar of his church at
Bolsena, "A Bohemian priest was seized
with the terrible temptation to doubt the
transubstantiation of the wafer which he
had just consecrated. Horrified at his
own guilt, the celebrant of the mass be-
held drops of blood oozing from the sane
titled Host All were awe-stricken at the
miracle, and the Church instituted in
commemoration the feast of Corpus
Christi. Such was the pious legend
In the fourteenth century, when Heil-
rich Won Bulow had destroyed the village
and church of Wilnach, as if to show
that Heaven was panied at the sacrilege,
eight days afterward the Host on the altar
was observed to be stained with drops of
0lood XIII.
Near the close of that fourteenth century
appeared Raphael, a wonderful man,
with a genius sublime, with passions
groveling and withal Righteousness that
made him feel and pass for devout. In
the now celebrated stanZe of Raphael in
the Vatican is that miracle of this paint
er's genius, =" MiracolO di Bolsena." It's
exhibition at each feast of Corpus Christi
intensified the church's conception of the
so.called miracle which confirmed the
faith of the Bohemian priest, Unhappily
the bloody portent returned; the Host was
again spotted with gore. The zeal of the
ccclesiastics became insane, for, horrible
to relate, thirty eight innocent Jews were
burned at the stake. For whatg For
crucifying the Lord afresh, for torturing
the Host until it bled!
In 1924 the "blue Moelles" was horri-
fed with rain of supernatural blood /;
and again in 1S4S this unnatural gore fell
from Heaven. And now Ehrenberg takes
the matter in hand for sober investigation,
and the microscope alone is to determine
the superstitions of men. This great man
dissipated the miracle entirely by eXcit-
ing wonder in another direction, for he
announced that these bloody Tain-drops
were composed of real living organisms,
! but so minute was each individual that ii
would take over forty billions OF them to
| make one cubic inch.
| Thus the microscope has done away
with these grim portents OF thousand
! years. This red snow and bloody slime
have now their distinctive place and name
among organic things. They are micro.
scopic vegetables plants. In
the Arctic regions Capt Ross found this
| crimsoned snow extending in masses OF
miles. He brought some home, and the
able botanist, r. Brown, pronounced j
! 1lgdruBl genus. IL is curious to notice
the controversy of so many able botanists
with their diverse judgments. But aftel
| a while all came back TO the judgment o
Brown; and Agardh, the able German
algologist, gave this, the lowliest of the
algG, the name PrOctOc0ccuS niUGLis.
But about the drops of blood! This
also the microscope has determined to be
an algg, and bears the name given it by
Agardh, Pamela cruente. Its structure
is even simpler than that of an odium
The name, though not romantic, is sig.
niticant. Palmella means vibration OF
quivering, and is here suggestive Of that
uemulous movement of which a great
eliot Of coagulated blood is capable. The
entire word indicates the significance GOT
quivering gore" In England the popu
lar name of this fungous slime is "gOr5
de,o." 1t occurs as shining red films ol
thickish blood-red stains ON damp wall:
of cellars. Being a unicellular plant
when the cells are mature there is a flow
ing together into viscous masses, whict
look and feel unpleasantly like clotteC
blood. Presenting also this aspect o
gore, though not so decidedly, is tn,
HgmatOc0ccUs SGaguineus of Agardh
Though moist to the touch, this has no
the gelatinous character of pamela
hence the bloody illusion is not so vivid
-Prof. Samuel Lockwood, IN Harper
WGgdzine for May.