BOOK OF THE DAMNED 43 



In the American Journal of Science, 1-2-335, is Professor Graves* 

 account, communicated by Professor Dewey: 



That, upon the evening of August 13, 1819, a light was seen in 

 Amherst a falling object sound as if of an explosion. 



In the home of Prof. Dewey, this light was reflected upon a wall 

 of a room in which were several members of Prof. Dewey's family. 



The next morning, in Prof. Dewey's front yard, in what is said 

 to have been the only position from which the light that had been 

 seen in the room, the night before, could have been reflected, was 

 found a substance "unlike anything before observed by anyone who 

 saw it." It was a bowl-shaped object, about 8 inches in diameter, 

 and one inch thick. Bright buff-colored, and having upon it a "fine 

 nap." Upon removing this covering, a buff-colored, pulpy substance 

 of the consistency of soft-soap, was found "of an offensive, suf- 

 focating smell." 



A few minutes of exposure to the air changed the buff color to "a 

 livid color resembling venous blood." It absorbed moisture quickly 

 from the air and liquefied. For some of the chemic reactions, see 

 the Journal. 



There's another lost quasi-soul of a datum that seems to me to 

 belong here: 



London Times, April 19, 1836: 



Fall of fish that had occurred in the neighborhood of Allahabad, 

 India, It is said that the fish were of the chalwa species, about a 

 span in length and a seer in weight you know. 



They were dead and dry. 



Or they had been such a long time out of water that we can't 

 accept that they had been scooped out of a pond, by a whirlwind 

 even though they were so definitely identified as of a known local 

 species 



Or they were not fish at all. 



I incline, myself, to the acceptance that they were not fish, but 

 slender, fish-shaped objects of the ?ame substance as that which 

 fell at Amherst it is said that, whatever they were, they could 

 not be eaten: that "in the pan, they turned to blood." 



For details of this story see the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, 1834-307. May 16 or 17, 1834, is the date given in the 

 Journal. 



In the American Journal of Science, 1-25-362, occurs the inev- 

 itable damnation of the Amherst object: 



Prof. Edward Hitchcock went to live in Amherst. He says that 



