i8 



led the inhabitants to say the grain had fallen from heaven. Such a 

 shower fell in 1845, in the Crimea, and covered the ground to the 

 depth of three or four inches, and was used as food by the inhabitants 

 for several days. 



Wherever this lichen occurred in any quantity men and cattle eat 

 it. In Asia Minor also it sometimes formed beds several inches thick, 

 on which not only the sheep w'ere nourished, but a species of bread 

 was made from it, and consumed by the poor, who regarded it as true 

 manna sent from Heaven. There was one fact in connection with 

 lichens generally, all contained nitrogeneous matters and starch, and 

 many kinds were used as food. 



It was often argued, and especially by a writer in the Dictionary 

 of the Bible, that the manna of Scripture was wholly miraculous, and 

 not in any respect a product of Nature. All the plants mentioned 

 did produce the so-called manna for only a few months : but these 

 lichens might be gathered all the year round. The lichens again were 

 produced in large quantities, but not, as he states, at the rate of 

 i5,ooo,ooolbs. a week, which quantity might, by Divine agency, 

 assuming a lichen to have been the manna of Scripture, have been 

 produced by increasing the growth without depriving the plants of 

 their character as natural products. 



Another difficulty which had puzzled many was the fact that the 

 manna collected on the sixth day " did not stink " on the Sabbath, 

 though that collected on other days and kept over did ; but it seemed 

 the injunction, " Bake that ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will 

 seethe," showed how by the process of cooking decomposition was 

 arrested. He could quite understand that this very lichen, gathered 

 in large quantities while the dew was on it, and heaped up damp and 

 moist, would decompose, ferment, and deteriorate. The fact that the 

 Israelites were supplied w-ith manna for forty years, that a double 

 quantity fell on the sixth day, and that it ceased when their wandering 

 ended, placed its production an\ong the miracles of Divine ageney 

 without taking away from it the character of being a natural pro- 

 duction, created only when first seen by the children of Israel, and 

 no longer existing as a part of the scheme of the life of the globe. 



Of all the substances hitherto assumed to be the manna of 

 Scripture, this L. Esculenta seemed to approach the nearest, in its 

 being produced all the year round, being round and hard, able to be 



