Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-04-01
VERY STRANGE SHOWERS.
The showers of Flesh and showers Of
BlOOd--Whence They Game.

The showers of Flesh and showers Of
BlOOd--Whence They Game.
The so called " showers of flesh" in
Kentucky have been authenticated and
the substances analyzed. What fell, if
not flesh, were heshy substances, and
history gives us numerous instances to
illustrate the truth Of what is stated. It
will be seen that there have been show
ers of blood and showers of earth, as
well as of flesh. We copy the follow
ing as very interesting from the work of
Flammarione
In the early part of July, 1908, one of
these pretended showers of blood fell
in the outskirts of AK Tin Provence)
and this shower extended to the dis
tance of half a league from the town.
Some priests, either being themselves
deceived, or wishing to work upon the
credulity of the people, at once attrib-
uted it to diabolic influence.
Fortunately, person of education,
M. de Peirese, examined very minutely
into this apparent prodigy, studying in
particular some drops that fell upon the
wall of the cemetery attached to the
principal church in AK. He soon dis
covered that they were in reality the
excrements of some butterflies which
had been noticed in large numbers dur
ing tile early part of July. There were
no spots of the kind in the center of
the town, where the butterflies had not
made their appearance, and mono were
noticed upon the higher parts of the
houses, above the level to which they
few. Besides, the presence of these
drops in places protected from the air
rendered it impossible that they could
have had their origin in the atmos-
phere. He at once pointed this out to
those who regarded the occurrence as
miraculous (; but, in despite of the
proofs which he adduced, the inhabit-
ants persisted in attributing these drops
to supernatural cause.
Severally speaking, showers of blood
are not only red spots produced by GER
tain insects, but regular showers, color
ed by the dust which the wind carries
into the air. This general origin was
not ascertained until the present cen
tury. On March IA, 1918, one of
these strange showers fell in the king
dom of Naples and the two Calabrias.
There fell large drops of reddish rain
which many persons took for blood. A
similar shower of reddish dust occurred
at the opposite extremity of Abruzzes.
This dust was of a Yellowish hue, like
cinnamon, and had slight earthly taste;
it was unctuous to the touch, and seen
through q glass, contained small and
hard bodies resembling pyroxene. Heat
at first embrowned it, then made it
black and finally gave it reddish
tint. After the action of the heat, this
dust displayed, even to the naked eye,
an immense number of small and bril-
liant points, which were of yellow mica.
Its specific gravity, when deprived of
hard substances, was 2.07; it was COM
posed of silica, $50; aluminium, 1876;
lime, 11.6; chrome, 10; iron, 145; and
carbonic acid, so.
Whence came this duct This il was
found impossible to ascertain at that
time. It was not until 1916 that gen.
eral examination of these rains was
made and their origin found by follow
ing them up into space. In the autumn
of this year shower of reddish slime
and earthly rain, which was popularly
converted into shower of blood, oc-
CARED in the south of France, at the
same time that cyclone swept over the
Atlantic. Fournet gives a calculation
which shows that in the Department of
the Drome the clouds must have taken
up from, and again discharged upon,
the ground the enormous weight of 720
tons. Ehrenberg, who analysed sam
pies of this earth, found in them 73
organic formations, some of which were
peculiar to southern America. This
earth must therefore have come from
the new world. The interval of time
between their leaving America, Oct. 13,
and their arrival in France, Oct. II,
was about four days, which gives a
speed of about 49, yards per second.
This recital of the showers of blood
shows us, first, that they are reality;
secondly, that they are mostly due to
dust taken up by the winds into very
distant regions; thirdly, that they are
not infrequent, as they have occurred on
no less than 21 different occasions dur
ing the present century in Europe and
Algeria. These remarkable showers
| HoSUly bdho pldCS III buo spring anu puc
autumn, at the epoch of equinoctial
gales.
There are many instances cited in
which nutritious substances have de-
scended in shower. Thus, in 1924
and 1928, there was shower SO abund-
ant, of this kind, in one of the districts
of Persia, that it covered the ground to
tho depth of five or six inches. 1t was
a kind of hchen of a sort already
known. Cattle and sheep devoured il
eagerly, and some bread was even made
of it. The descent of a soft substance
Muschenbroeck states to have occurred
in Ireland in 1875. This was glutinous
and fatty. and softened when held il
the hand, and emitted an unpleasant
smell when exposed to the action of the
fire.