286 IT.AGVES. 



• 



into silent wonder not daring to investigate the causation of these Divine 

 interpositions nor to enquire into their probable production on natural 

 principles. Blood spots, as they are termed, have frequently been seen 

 in the Summer season on the leaves of plants and on stones, and are 

 now, perhaps, correctly ascribed to a species of butterfly, which, it is 

 known, immediately after quitting the chrysalis state, emits drops of 

 blood-red fluid, and when multitudes of the insect move together they 

 deposit this fluid in sufficient quantity to spot the herbage and the soil. 

 But the fact of rivers being colored militates against the agency of these 

 insects as being sufficient to the production of such extensive efliects. 

 It is to be regretted, that the more ancient histories of blood-rain contain 

 so few of the attending aerial appearances as to leave much to conjec- 

 ture, which, if known, would contribute to a correct explanation of the 

 event. Our own country in January 1741, furnished one instance in 

 New England, of lain which, as it fell, presented the appearance of blood 

 descending from the sky. There was on this night an appearance as 

 though the heavens were on fire, the brightness of which illuminated 

 the earth so as to render objects clearly visible, and it was during the 

 continuance of this unusual illumination, that the drops of a shower pre- 

 sented the peculiar hue of blood. It is said that the people who beheld 

 it superstitiously regarded it as the fervent heat with which the elements 

 are to be melted before "the great and terrible day of the Lord," and 

 viewed it as the harbinger of the end of time. This occurred at a time 

 when a malignant disease was prevailing in Philadelphia and Virginia. 



We do not design to prosecute a comparison between these appeai'- 

 ances and "the plague of blood" in Exodus, but as they are curious 

 they were thought to be interesting. The death of different species of 

 fish, and the corruption of water are such frequent attendants upon great 

 plagues as to receive particular notice by all careful historians, especially 

 of the later centuries. Diemerbroek, in the 17th century, who philan- 

 thropically bestowed medical attention upon multitudes, who were ill 

 with a plague then raging, and who afterwards wrote a history of the 

 distemper, speaks pointedly on this matter and also of the unusual ten- 

 dency to putrefaction in fish, flesh, and even vegetables during the pre- 

 valence of pestilence. Aristotle (De animalibus,) refers to the same fact, 

 but mentions that no one pestilence appears to affect all kinds of fish. It is 

 deserving of mention, too, that nearly at the same time that the yellow 

 fever was prevalent in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and some of the seaports 

 of Virginia, in 1797, multitudes of dead fish were seen floating down 

 James river in that state. Instances of the kind might, with a little re- 

 search, be greatly multiplied. The fact of deterioration in the healthful 



