40 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



only of sand. In my own still immature hereticalness and by 

 heresy, or progress, I mean, very largely, a return, though with 

 many modifications, to the superstitions of the past, I think I feel 

 considerable aloofness to the idea of rains of blood. Just at present, 

 it is my conservative, or timid purpose, to express only that there 

 have been red rains that very strongly suggest blood or finely divided 

 animal matter 



Debris from inter-planetary disasters. 



Aerial battles. 



Food-supplies from cargoes of super-vessels, wrecked in inter- 

 planetary traffic. 



There was a red rain in the Mediterranean region, March 6, 1888. 

 Twelve days later, it fell again. Whatever this substance may have 

 been, when burned, the odor of animal matter from it was strong 

 and persistent. (I! Astronomic, 1888-205.) 



Butinfinite heterogeneity or debris from many different kinds 

 of aerial cargoes there have been red rains that have been colored 

 by neither sand nor animal matter. 



Annals of Philosophy, 16-226: 



That, Nov. 2, 1819 week before the black rain and earthquake 

 of Canada there fell, at Blankenberge, Holland, a red rain. As 

 to sand, two chemists of Bruges concentrated 144 ounces of the rain 

 to 4 ounces "no precipitate fell." But the color was so marked 

 that had there been sand, it would have been deposited, if the sub- 

 stance had been diluted instead of concentrated. Experiments were 

 made, and various reagents did cast precipitates, but other than 

 sand. The chemists concluded that the rain-water contained muriate 

 of cobalt which is not very enlightening: that could be said of 

 many substances carried in vessels upon the Atlantic Ocean. What- 

 ever it may have been, in the Annales de Chimie, 2-12-432, its 

 color is said to have been red-violet. For various chemic reactions, 

 see Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst., 9-202, and Edin. Phil. Jour., 2-381. 



Something that fell with dust said to have been meteoric, March 

 9, 10, n, 1872: described in the Chemical News, 25-300, as a "pecu- 

 liar substance," consisted of red iron ochre, carbonate of lime, and 

 organic matter. 



Orange-red hail, March 14, 1873, in Tuscany. (Notes and Que- 

 ries, 9-5-16.) 



Rain of lavender-colored substance, at Oudon, France, Dec. 19, 

 1903. (Bull. Soc. Met. de France, 1904-124.) 



La Nature, 1885-2-351: 



