Journal 



OF THE 



NEW-YOR K MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. I. JULY, 1885. No. 7. 



ON CERTAIN SO-CALLED PRODIGIES. 



BY C. F. COX. 



{Read June ^th, 1885.) 



The " American Monthly Microscopical Journal " published, 

 in February last, a newspaper clipping giving the dates of various 

 reputed "colored rains." That list, the work of an anonymous 

 compiler, is manifestly only a fragment of what might be made 

 by a diligent searcher of chronicles and histories ; for mysterious 

 natural phenomena have always been objects of more or less 

 superstitious attention and have been prominent subjects of 

 written record from the earliest historical times. 



To the student and philosopher of to-day the annals of the so- 

 called prodigies of earlier ages have a certain interest and value, 

 because they furnish landmarks in the progress of accurate ob- 

 servation and give us clues to that credulous state of the human 

 mind which seems to have necessarily preceded the foundation 

 of inductive reasoning. Besides this, however, the mere historian 

 of scientific discovery will find in these ancient records what we 

 must believe to be truthful statements of facts mingled with dis- 

 torted and erroneous interpretations and many unintentional 

 misstatements of what were thought to be facts ; and he may, 

 not altogether unprofitably, exercise his ingenuity in and apply 

 his later knowledge to the separation of the true from the false, 

 and the elucidation of that which has seemed obscure. 



In this view of the matter, I have thought that I might venture 

 to enlarge the list of such old-time prodigies as would naturally 

 interest persons accustomed to the use of the microscope ; by 

 which I mean such marvels and wonders as would not now seem 

 to be extraordinary or prodigious, because of the light which 

 microscopical investigation would be able to throw upon them. 



I find myself speaking of these prodigies as if they were occur- 

 rences peculiar to ancient times, while the fact is that neither the 



