Blood-red Colour of Water. 1^ 



distinguish, by the most accurate investigation, the appearances 

 of this kind, which are indisputably meteoric ; so, on the other 

 hand, for the sake of comparison, il must be of consequence to 

 know the genuine characteristics of such appearances as are not 

 meteoric ; and, aUhough Chladni was so much inclined to en- 

 large his catalogue of meteoric masses by including in it blood- 

 like appearances on the earth'*s surface, it is no easy matter to 

 prove that even a single one of his examples are really meteoric. 



The explanation of the appearances of blood is historically 

 divided into four periods, which may be called, 1,9^, The theo- 

 cratic or period of miracles ; 2d, The period of the Hippocratic 

 school ; 3c/, The physical or natural-historical ; and, 4<A, The 

 atmospherical or cosmical. 



The first period extends from the commencement of history 

 till the time of Cicero. In the second, the admissibility of 

 miracles was questioned, and a belief in a crude and boiled con- 

 dition of atmospherical and terrestrial moisture was prevalent. 

 Peiresc of Aix commenced the third period ; and Chladni, who 

 strongly reprehended the encroachments of natural historians in 

 these matters, established the fourth. 



We have the most ancient account of blood-coloured water 

 from Egypt, in the books of Moses. That was an immediate 

 operation of the Almighty, and one of the miracles which Moses 

 performed in the presence of Pharaoh. The Nile was red, and 

 stank ; the fishes died, and all the water in Egypt was changed 

 in the same manner *. 



After diis, the poems of Homer mention the earliest appear- 

 ance of a similar kind, or the poet took advantage of, at least 

 repeated, the natural appearance of blood rain, known at that 



• Exodus, chap viL ver. 19. — And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto 

 Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of F>gypt, 

 upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all 

 their pools of water, that they may become blood ; and that there may be 

 blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of Avood, and in vessels 

 ^ stone. Verse 20. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded : 

 and he lift up the rod, and smote the waters that tcere in the river, in the 

 sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that 

 were in the river were turned to blood. Verse 2L And the fish that tvas 

 in the river died ; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of 

 the water of the river ; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 



