356 



1869. 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON MANNA. 



Meteoric 

 manna. 



Oriental 

 fancies. 



me still greater service in furnishing extracts from several authors 

 whose works I might otherwise have overlooked. 



With regard to manna which has fallen from the atmosphere, or 

 as it is termed meteoric manna, the grand example is that de- 

 scribed in the book of Exodus. Of this it may be safely affirmed 

 that, accepting the Mosaic account as the simple narrative of a 

 real event, no phenomenon is known which is at all adequate to 

 explain it. 



But there are other examples of meteoric manna which come 

 fairly within the range of natural phenomena, and which it 

 would be interesting to consider did space permit. I may 

 observe that the notion that manna is not the juice of a plant, 

 but that it is of the nature of dew and falls from the sky, is very 

 ancient and still lingers in the East. In the case of the manna- 

 ash, it was disproved by the Franciscan monks Angelus, Palea 

 and Bartholomseus ab Urbe Vetere, who relate how they caused 

 some of the trees to be covered with sheets, so that nothing 

 could fall upon them ; and that notwithstanding this precaution, 

 manna was produced as before. 1 But this reasonable conclusion 

 was regarded as scarcely orthodox, and the learned Matthioli 

 was at much pains to supply an explanation more, as he thought, 

 in accordance with Scripture. 



The special point, however, which I desire to discuss in this 

 paper relates to the period at which ash-manna began to be 

 collected. Manna is mentioned more or less particularly by 

 most of the Arabian physicians with whose works we are 

 acquainted, but the allusions are all to Oriental manna, and 

 not to that of Italy or Sicily. This is manifest from the 

 Ebn Beithar. writings of Ebn Beithar, 2 one of the most eminent and learned 

 men of his time and a great traveller ; and who, being a native 

 of Malaga, would probably when speaking of manna have 

 named that of Sicily, the more so as that island, having been 

 for nearly 250 years under Saracenic rule, must have been 

 familiar to the Arabs of Spain. Ebn Beithar is moreover in 



1 Geoffrey, Tractatus de Mat. Med. ii. 587. The whole disquisition of 

 this author, De Manna SoJutiva, is replete with information. 

 1 Ed. Sontheimer, 1840-42. i., 207., ii. 533. 





