SHOWERS OF BLOOD EXPLAINED. 35 1 



in the suburbs of Aix, and for many miles around 

 it, and particularly the walls of a churchyard were 

 spotted with the blood. This occurrence would, no 

 doubt, have been chronicled in history as a super- 

 natural prodigy, had not Aix possessed at this time, 

 in M. Peiresc, a philosopher who, in the eager pur- 

 suit of all kinds of knowledge, had not neglected the 

 study of insects. It is accordingly related, in the 

 curious life of Peiresc by Gassendi, that he had, 

 about the time of the rumoured shower of blood, 

 happened to find a large chrysalis, the beauty of 

 which made him preserve it in a box. Some time 

 after hearing a noise in the box, he opened it and 

 found a fine butterfly, which had left upon the bottom 

 a red stain of considerable magnitude, and apparently 

 of exactly the same nature with the drops on the stones, 

 popularly supposed to be blood. He remarked, at 

 the same time, that there were countless numbers of 

 butterflies flying about, which confirmed him in the 

 belief of his having discovered the true cause ; and 

 this was further corroborated by his finding none of 

 the red drops in the heart of the city, where the but- 

 terflies were rarely seen. He also remarked, that the 

 drops were never on tiles, and seldom on the upper 

 part of a stone, as they must have been had they 

 fallen from the heavens, but usually appeared in 

 cavities and parts protected by some angular pro- 

 jection. What Peiresc had thus ascertained, he lost 

 no time in disclosing to many persons of knowledge 

 and curiosity, who had been puzzling themselves to 

 account for the circumstance by far-fetched reason- 

 ings, such as a supposed vapour which had carried 

 up a supposed red earth into the air that had tinged 

 the rain ; — no less wide of the truth than the popular 

 superstition which ascribed it to magic, or to the 

 devil himself.* Those who are curious to verify the 



* Reaumur, vol. i. p. 638. 



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