46 MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



the same time and place, as sometimes happens, the 

 people have been struck with terror and dismay, taking 

 these drops for the effects of a shower of blood, which 

 of course could portend nothing less than some direful 

 calamity to the country. The author of this volume, 

 last October, obtained a specimen of these bloody drops, 

 from the Papilio artica, the caterpillar of which was 

 taken from the common nettle, and underwent the met- 

 amorphoses in confinement. The red drops happening 

 to fall on a piece of oil-cloth carpet, were cut out and 

 preserved. They are of a deep red, and do not fade by 

 keeping. In consequence of this circumstance, the au- 

 thor's attention was excited to the subject, and he threw 

 together the following remarks and facts, which were 

 offered as a little contribution to " The Hartford Natural 

 History Society." 



120. Ancient showers of blood explained by facts, in 

 the Natural History of the Butterfly. It is well "known 

 to the general reader, that various authors have described 

 show r ers of blood as falling from the heavens, and that 

 such phenomena have been considered the miraculous 

 precursors of some extraordinary, or direful event. Thus 

 Ovid has commemorated such an occurrence among the 

 other prodigies which attended the violent death of the 

 great Roman dictator. 



" With threatening signs the lowering skies were filled, 

 And sanguine drops from murky clouds distilled." 



121. Such occurrences are alluded to by several other 

 ancient writers, both Greek and Roman. Homer 

 speaks of show r ers of blood which fell before his time, 

 and also one or two, of which it would appear that he 

 was an eyewitness. Such phenomena he declares in- 

 dicate the direct and violent encroachment of the gods 

 on the established laws of nature. Cicero also alludes 

 to such events, and was the first to doubt their preter- 

 natural origin ; but in his attempts to account for them 

 on natural principles, he involves suppositions not less 

 difficult to explain than the phenomenon itself, even with 

 out reference to its real cause. 



122. Dion Cassius, who flourished in the third century, 

 mentions a shower of blood which fell in Egypt in the 



