Free The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort Page A

have wrought such good effects, in a sociologic sense, even though prostitutional in the positivist sense, that, in the sociologic sense, they were well justified;
    But that we’ve gone on: that this is the twentieth century; that most of us have grown up so that such soporifics of the past are no longer necessary:
    That if gushes of blood should fall from the sky upon New York City, business would go on as usual.
    We began with rains that we accepted ourselves were, most likely, only of sand. In my own still immature hereticalness—and by heresy, or progress, I mean, very largely, a return, though with many modifications, to the superstitions of the past, I think I feel considerable aloofness to the idea of rains of blood. Just at present, it is my conservative, or timid purpose, to express only that there have been red rains that very strongly suggest blood or finely divided animal matter—
    Débris from interplanetary disasters.
    Aerial battles.
    Food supplies from cargoes of super-vessels, wrecked in interplanetary traffic.
    There was a red rain in the Mediterranean region, March 6, 1888. Twelve days later, it fell again. Whatever this substance may have been, when burned, the odor of animal matter from it was strong and persistent. (L’Astronomie, 1888-205.)
    But—infinite heterogeneity—or débris from many different kinds of aerial cargoes—there have been red rains that have been colored by neither sand nor animal matter.
    Annals of Philosophy, 16-226:
    That, Nov. 2, 1819—week before the black rain and earthquake of Canada—there fell, at Blankenberge, Holland, a red rain. As to sand, two chemists of Bruges concentrated 144 ounces of the rain to four ounces—“no precipitate fell.” But the color was so marked that had there been sand, it would have been deposited, if the substance had been diluted instead of concentrated. Experiments were made, and various reagents did cast precipitates, but other than sand. The chemists concluded that the rainwater contained muriate of cobalt—which is not very enlightening: that could be said of many substances carried in vessels upon the Atlantic Ocean. Whatever it may have been, in the Annales de Chimie, 2-12-432, its color is said to have been red-violet. For various chemic reactions, see Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst., 9-202, and Edin. Phil. Jour., 2-381.
    Something that fell with dust said to have been meteoric, March 9, 10, 11, 1872: described in the Chemical News, 25-300, as a “peculiar substance,” consisted of red iron ocher, carbonate of lime, and organic matter.
    Orange-red hail, March 14, 1873, in Tuscany. (Notes and Queries, 9-5-16.)
    Rain of lavender-colored substance, at Oudon, France, Dec. 19, 1903. (Bull. Soc. Met. de France, 1904-124.)
    La Nature, 1885-2-351:
    That, according to Prof. Schwedoff, there fell, in Russia, June 14, 1880, red hailstones, also blue hailstones, also gray hailstones.
    Nature, 34-123:
    A correspondent writes that he had been told by a resident of a small town in Venezuela, that there, April 17, 1886, had fallen hailstones, some red, some blue, some whitish: informant said to have been one unlikely ever to have heard of the Russian phenomenon; described as an “honest, plain countryman.”
    Nature, July 5, 1877, quotes a Roman correspondent to the London Times who sent a translation from an Italian newspaper that a red rain had fallen in Italy, June 23, 1877, containing “microscopically small particles of sand.”
    Or, according to our acceptance, any other story would have been an evil thing, in the sociologic sense, in Italy, in 1877. But the English correspondent, from a land where terrifying red rains are uncommon, does not feel this necessity. He writes: “I am by no means satisfied that the rain was of sand and water.” His observations are that drops of this rain left stains “such as sandy water could not leave.” He notes that when the water evaporated, no sand was left behind.
    L’Année Scientifique,