182 JOURNAL OF THE . [july, 



tions by Dr. A. Mead Edwards, Dr. J. W. S. Arnold, and others, 

 subsequently demonstrated that the substance which fell was 

 lung-tissue, cartilage, and muscular fibre ; so that the shower 

 was of veritable meat. Still later it was made out that the 

 tissue was that of a horse, and when finally the miraculous rain 

 came to be connected with the appearance of a flock of buz- 

 zards, the whole secret was out ; for it is a habit of those un- 

 savory birds to gorge themselves with carrion to the point of 

 bursting and then to vomit, as they fly, what they are unable to 

 retain. 



Thus easily was a modern prodigy disposed of ; and quite as 

 rationally, we now see, might we dispose of all ancient prodi- 

 gies which were not mendacious fabrications, if only we could 

 catechise witnesses and apply scientific methods to the exami- 

 nation of such facts as were found to remain. 



APPENDIX. 



It may be of interest to the curious to know how some of 

 these prodigious events were explained by the pseudo-science 

 of the seventeenth century, and so I append some extracts 

 from a work entitled " Speculum. Mu?idi, or a Glasse Represent- 

 ing the Face of the World ; shewing both that it did begin, and 

 must also end ; the manner how, and time when, being largely 

 examined. Whereunto is joyned an Hexameron, or a serious 

 discourse of the causes, continuance, and qualities of things in 

 Nature ; occasioned as matter pertinent to the work done in 

 the six dayes of the World's creation." "By John Swan, M! of 

 Arts, late Student of Trmitie Colledge, Camb. — A.D. 1643." 



" And now it followeth that I divide all sorts of rain into two 

 kinds : First, such as are ordinary ; secondly, such as be extra- 

 ordinary. 



" 1 call those ordinary when nothing but water falleth. And 

 I call those extraordinary which others call prodigious rains ; as 

 when worms, frogs, fish, wheat, milk, flesh, bloud, wool, stones, 

 iron, earth, &c., fall from the clouds. Plinie makes mention of 

 many such prodigies as these, in the 56 chapter of his second 

 book ; setting down the times when they happened. 



" Concerning all which, next under God (the causer of the 

 causes causing them) these or the like reasons may be urged to 

 shew how it is possible they should be procured, and upon 

 what causes they naturally depend. 



