48 MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



subject ; for it was generally believed that such showers 

 undoubtedly prognosticated some direful event, and hence, 

 they were received as miraculous warnings, or special 

 interpositions of Providence, in the affairs of men. Under 

 such a belief, we can hardly* wonder that few or none 

 u could be found, who w r ere so bold, or perhaps wicked, as 

 to attempt to account for such occurrences on natural 

 principles. Such conduct would have been a virtual 

 denial of the miracle itself, or at least a fool-hardy at- 

 tempt to explain the acknowledged special communica- 

 tions of heaven by a reference to the ordinary laws of 

 nature. 



127. It is true that in the time of Hippocrates, a learned 

 doctor named Garceus, declared it as his opinion, that 

 blood-rain was common rain boiled by the heat of the sun, 

 but with this exception, we find no expressions of doubt 

 with respect to the miracle, or at least no attempt to solve 

 the mystery, from the time of Cicero to that of the cele- 

 brated naturalist Reaumur, in the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century. 



128. Before we proceed to the explanation, it may be 

 proper to remark, that so far as we know, all the ancient 

 accounts of bloody-rain, fail entirely with respect to the 

 detail of attending circumstances. We are not informed 

 whether such showers fell from thick clouds, accompanied 

 with lightning and thunder. Whether they fell by night 

 or by day, or indeed whether the red drops were ever 

 seen to descend, or whether they were first discovered on 

 the leaves of plants, and on stones and fences. Hence 

 we may fairly conclude that the fall of bloody showers 

 have only been inferred from appearances on, or near the 

 ground. 



129. It is now known that there are several species of 

 butterfly which emit red drops, immediately after their 

 emergence from the chrysalis, as the papilio io, or the pea- 

 cock butterfly ; the papilio urtica?, and several others. 



130. The report of Reaumur, to which we have before 

 alluded, and which accounts satisfactorily for these bloody 

 showers, is as follows : In the beginning of July, 1608, 

 the people of Aix la Chapelle, were in the utmost alarm 

 from what they thought a shower of blood, that had 

 fallen in the suburbs, and some miles around the place. 



