ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 39 



The position of the drops seen on the fence indicated a very slight 

 wind from the south or southwest, across some plouglied land. The 

 woman was standing on this ploughed land, near a fence, along 

 which some small pine bushes were growing 8he noticed some- 

 thing falling between her and the ground, saw it leave a red splash 

 on the sand, heard a pattering like rain around her, looked up, but 

 it was all over and she could see nothing. She was a good deal 

 frightened and aifected, taking it as a portent of deat or evil of 

 some kind. Mr. S. A. Holleman visited the spot the next morning, 

 (the fall took place about mid-day), and has kindly given me the 

 following facts observed : The space covered was about fifty by 

 seventy feet, and nearly in a rectangular form. The drops were of 

 sizes varying from that ol a small pea to that of a man's finger and 

 averaged about one to the square foot. Smaller drops were in- 

 stantly absorbed, larger ones, with those on the wood, coagulated. 

 Some fell in the bushes and coagulated upon the limbs. Dr. Robin- 

 son, living near, collected some of the freshly fallen material and 

 made certain simple tests which satisfied him that it was blood. It 

 even had the smell, he says, of fresh blood. Now as to the samples 

 which I could procure for analysis : One from Mr. Holleman was 

 gotten by some third person and consisted only of a few grains of 

 stained sand. The other, also stained sand, was somewhat larger 

 in quantity and came indirectly into the hands of Dr. Atwater, who 

 gave it to lue. It is a pity that a sample could not have been gotten 

 more directly — one whose origin would have been placed beyond all 

 dispute. The analysis is detailed at length, as it is important to see 

 on what foundation rests the claims of this material to be blood. 

 The sand placed in cold water gave a brown-red solution, which 

 coagulated on heating. The coagulum, a dirty brown, was soluble 

 in caustic alkalis, giving an indistinct green solution — treated with 

 an acid solution of mercury nitrate, it gave a brick-red color. 

 Nitric acid also caused the formation of this coagulum and gave the 

 characteristic yellow tint on heating. The original solution in water 

 was brightened in color, not turning green or crimson on adding 

 ammonia. On leaving the solution two or three days, it readily 

 putrefied, showing under the microscope a great swar of bacteria. 

 Examined by the microscope, the appearance of small, slightly al- 

 tered corpuscles was seen, corresponding well with those gotten from 

 slaughter-yard soil. The spectrum of this substance when the solu- 

 tion was perfectly fresh gave a line in the yellow, none in the green, 

 and a faint one in the red. On standing, the first two disappeared, 

 and the red absorption band or line became very distinct; nn add- 



