50 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



returned next morning and found a gelatinous mass of grayish color. 



According to Chladni's account (Annals of Philosophy, n.s., 

 12-94) a. viscous mass fell with a luminous meteorite between Siena 

 and Rome, May, 1652; viscous matter found after the fall of a 

 fire ball, in Lusatia, March, 1796; fall of a gelatinous substance, 

 after the explosion of a meteorite, near Heidelburg, July, 1811. 

 In the Edinbwgh Philosophical Journal, 1-234, the substance that 

 fell at Lusatia is said to have been of the "color and odor of dried, 

 brown varnish." In the Amer. Jour. Sci., 1-26-133, it is said that 

 gelatinous matter fell with a globe of fire, upon the island of Lethy, 

 India, 1718. 



In the Amer. Jour. Sci., 1-26-396, in many observations upon 

 the meteors of November, 1833, are reports of falls of gelatinous 

 substance: 



That, according to newspaper reports, "lumps of jelly" were 

 found on the ground at Rahway, N. J. The substance was whitish, 

 or resembled the coagulated white of an egg; 



That Mr. H. H. Garland, of Nelson County, Virginia, had found 

 a jelly-like substance of about the circumference of a twenty-five- 

 cent piece; 



That, according to a communication from A. C. Twining to Prof. 

 Olmstead, a woman at West Point, N. Y., had seen a mass the size 

 of a tea cup. It looked like boiled starch; 



That, according to a newspaper, of Newark, N. J., a mass of 

 gelatinous substance, like soft soap, had been found. "It possessed 

 little elasticity, and, on the application of heat, it evaporated as 

 readily as water." 



It seems incredible that a scientist would have such hardihood, 

 or infidelity, as to accept that these things had fallen from the sky: 

 nevertheless, Prof. Olmstead, who collected these lost souls says: 



"The fact that the supposed deposits were so uniformly described 

 as gelatinous substance forms a presumption in favor of the sup- 

 position that they had the origin ascribed to them." 



In contemporaneous scientific publications considerable attention 

 was given to Prof. Olmstead's series of papers upon this subject 

 of the November meteors. You will not find one mention of the 

 part that treats of gelatinous matter. 



