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The Real Kature of " Prodigies." — Mr. 



C. F. Cox has published, in the " Journal " 

 of the New York Microscopical Society, a 

 most interesting paper on "The So-called 

 Prodigies of Earlier Ages." He believes 

 that the stories of wonderful phenomena 

 and portents with which the old books 

 abound have a certain interest and value 

 to the student and philosopher of to-day, 

 " because they furnish landmarks in the 

 progress of observation, and give us clews 

 to that credulous state of the human mind 

 which seems to have necessarily preceded 

 the foundation of inductive reasoning." 

 Themcre historian of scientific discovery 

 will also find in them what he must be- 

 lieve to be truthful statements of facts, 

 mingled with distorted and erroneous in- 

 terpretations and many unintentional mis- 

 statements of what were thought to be 

 facta ; and he may employ himself with 

 some profit in separating the true from the 

 false. Mr. Cox cites from a variety of 

 books, particularly from Wolffhart's illus- 



trated " Chronicle," a large list of wonder- 

 ful appearances, which he divides into thir- 

 teen classes, for each of which he finds a 

 particular way of accounting with an ap- 

 proach to satisfactoriness. Thus, the sweat- 

 ing and weeping of images, altars, etc., may 

 be regarded as exaggerated cases of the 

 condensation of vapor upon them. The 

 bleeding of stones, shields, etc., was most 

 probably the growth of the red lichen upon 

 them, though it may in some cases have 

 been rust. Showers of earth, chalk, ashes, 

 etc., hardly need accounting for ; and rains 

 of brimstone may have been clouds of pol- 

 len, spores, or other yellow vegetable prod- 

 ucts. Showers of oil were probably not 

 showers at all, but marks of supposed 

 showers in the shape of greasy spots on 

 the earth or stones or plants, or iridescent 

 films on water ; the appearance is sometimes 

 produced by the growth of gelatmous pro- 

 tophytes, like the nostocs. The flowing of 

 oil in brooks, etc., is also accounted for, as 

 it would always be now, as a case of irides- 

 cence. Stories of showers of milk may 

 have originated in the appearance of white 

 spots, generally caused by growths of fun- 

 gus, on leaves. The flowing of milk from 

 the earth, in streams, etc., might be in most 

 cases the superstitious interpretation of so 

 simple a fact as the mixture of calcareous 

 earth with ordinary running water ; or, im- 

 der favorable conditions, some of the lower 

 forms of life might multiply so enormously 

 as to give a milky hue to considerable bodies 

 of water, as they do constantly under our 

 own observation in a smaller way. The 

 spotting of bread, grain, leaves, stones, 

 etc., with blood, is a phenomenon easily ac- 

 counted for by a very slight knowledge of 

 the various forms and habits of the red and 

 orange-yellow fungi. The flowing of blood 

 in the ocean, rivers, springs, etc., is to be 

 accounted for in some instances by the 

 presence, in unusual quantities, of red algae. 

 " Showers of blood " may be referred to 

 similar algae ; or deposits referable to such 

 showers may be produced, as was known to 

 be the case at Aix-la-Chapelle in July, 1608, 

 by butterfly-chrysalides undergoing trans- 

 formation, when large drops of a blood- 

 colored liquid exude from them. Red snow 

 is known to be a protococcus. "Showers 

 of flesh " — one occurred in Kentucky in 



