THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. 123 



fourteenth ; one in the fifteenth ; and five in the 

 sixteenth. 



The circumstances under which these isolated 

 incidents happened, are not related, whether these 

 showers fell from clouds, or whether there were an 

 abundance of clouds in the atmosphere at the time : 

 nor are we informed if these red showers were 

 actually seen falling, or whether they were merely 

 observed on the ground, and hence concluded to be 

 drops of red rain which had fallen. These accounts 

 have, for the most part, been accompanied with such 

 superstitious notions, and additions so manifestly false, 

 that we venture to account for them by phenomena 

 within the reach of physical science. 



It is no new discovery that insects are the cause of 

 showers of blood, for Sleidan mentions, that, in the 

 year 1553, a great part of Germany swarmed with 

 immense multitudes of butterflies ; and that tjiey 

 sprinkled the leaves of plants, buildings, and clothes, 

 with blood coloured drops, as if there had been 

 showers of blood.* 



M. de Reaumur was the first who recorded a satis- 

 factory and philosophical explanation of this pheno- 

 menon. An extensive shower of this kind took place 

 at Aix, in France, in the beginning of July, 1608, 

 which threw the people of that place into the utmost 

 consternation. It fell in the suburbs, and extended 

 for several miles round the town. The celebrated 

 M. de Peiresc, a philosopher who, with his varied 



* MOUFFET, Insect. Ann. Theatrum, p. 107. 

 VOL. T. I 



