Altogether, most of our difficulties are problems that we should leave
to later developers of super-geography, I think. A discoverer of America
should leave Long Island to someone else. If there be, plying back and
forth from Jupiter and Mars and Venus, super-constructions that are
sometimes wrecked, we think of fuel as well as cargoes. Of course the
most convincing data would be of coal falling from the sky:
nevertheless, one does suspect that oil-burning engines were discovered
ages ago in more advanced worlds--but, as I say, we should leave
something to our disciples--so we'll not especially wonder whether these
butter-like or oily substances were food or fuel. So we merely note that
in the _Scientific American_, 24-323, is an account of hail that fell,
in the middle of April, 1871, in Mississippi, in which was a substance
described as turpentine.
Something that tasted like orange water, in hailstones, about the first
of June, 1842, near Nimes, France; identified as nitric acid (_Jour. de
Pharmacie_, 1845-273).
Hail and ashes, in Ireland, 1755 (_Sci. Amer._, 5-168).
That, at Elizabeth, N.J., June 9, 1874, fell hail in which was a
substance, said, by Prof. Leeds, of Stevens Institute, to be carbonate
of soda (_Sci. Amer._, 30-262).
We are getting a little away from the lines of our composition, but it
will be an important point later that so many extraordinary falls have
occurred with hail. Or--if they were of substances that had had origin
upon some other part of this earth's surface--had the hail, too, that
origin? Our acceptance here will depend upon the number of instances.
Reasonably enough, some of the things that fall to this earth should
coincide with falls of hail.
As to vegetable substances in quantities so great as to suggest lost
cargoes, we have a note in the _Intellectual Observer_, 3-468: that,
upon the first of May, 1863, a rain fell at Perpignan, "bringing down
with it a red substance, which proved on examination to be a red meal
mixed with fine sand." At various points along the Mediterranean, this
substance fell.
There is, in _Philosophical Transactions_, 16-281, an account of a
seeming cereal, said to have fallen in Wiltshire, in 1686--said that
some of the "wheat" fell "enclosed in hailstones"--but the writer in
_Transactions_, says that he had examined the grains, and that they were
nothing but seeds of ivy berries dislodged from holes and chinks where
birds had hidden them. If birds still hide ivy seeds, and if winds still
blow, I don't see why the phenomenon has not repeated in more than two
hundred years since.
Or the red matter in rain, at Siena, Italy, May, 1830; said, by Arago,
to have been vegetable matter (Arago, _OEuvres_, 12-468).
Somebody should collect data of falls at Siena alone.
In the _Monthly Weather Review_, 29-465, a correspondent writes that,
upon Feb. 16, 1901, at Pawpaw, Michigan, upon a day that was so calm
that his windmill did not run, fell a brown dust that looked like
vegetable matter. The Editor of the _Review_ concludes that this was no
widespread fall from a tornado, because it had been reported from
nowhere else.
Rancidness--putridity--decomposition--a note that has been struck many
times. In a positive sense, of course, nothing means anything, or every
meaning is continuous with all other meanings: or that all evidences of
guilt, for instance, are just as good evidences of innocence--but this
condition seems to mean--things lying around among the stars a long
time. Horrible disaster in the time of Julius Caesar; remains from it
not reaching this earth till the time of the Bishop of Cloyne: we leave
to later research the discussion of bacterial action and decomposition,
and whether bacteria could survive in what we call space, of which we
know nothing--
_Chemical News_, 35-183:
Dr. A.T. Machattie, F.C.S., writes that, at London, Ontario, Feb. 24,
1868, in a violent storm, fell, with snow, a dark-colored substance,
estimated at 500 tons, over a belt 50 miles by 10 miles. It was examined
under a microscope, by Dr. Machattie, who found it to consist mainly of
vegetable matter "far advanced in decomposition." The substance was
examined by Dr. James Adams, of Glasgow, who gave his opinion that it
was the remains of cereals. Dr. Machattie points out that for months
before this fall the ground of Canada had been frozen, so that in this
case a more than ordinarily remote origin has to be thought of. Dr.
Machattie thinks of origin to the south. "However," he says, "this is
mere conjecture."
_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1841-40:
That, March 24, 1840--during a thunderstorm--at Rajkit, India, occurred
a fall of grain. It was reported by Col. Sykes, of the British
Association.
The natives were greatly excited--because it was grain of a kind unknown
to them.
Usually comes forward a scientist who knows more of the things that
natives know best than the natives know--but it so happens that the
usual thing was not done definitely in this instance:
"The grain was shown to some botanists, who did not immediately
recognize it, but thought it to be either a spartium or a vicia."
6
Lead, silver, diamonds, glass.
They sound like the accursed, but they're not: they're now of the
chosen--that is, when they occur in metallic or stony masses that
Science has recognized as meteorites. We find that resistance is to
substances not so mixed in or incorporated.
Of accursed data, it seems to me that punk is pretty damnable. In the
_Report of the British Association_, 1878-376, there is mention of a
light chocolate-brown substance that has fallen with meteorites. No
particulars given; not another mention anywhere else that I can find. In
this English publication, the word "punk" is not used; the substance is
called "amadou." I suppose, if the datum has anywhere been admitted to
French publications, the word "amadou" has been avoided, and "punk"
used.
Or oneness of allness: scientific works and social registers: a
Goldstein who can't get in as Goldstein, gets in as Jackson.
The fall of sulphur from the sky has been especially repulsive to the
modern orthodoxy--largely because of its associations with the
superstitions or principles of the preceding orthodoxy--stories of
devils: sulphurous exhalations. Several writers have said that they have
had this feeling. So the scientific reactionists, who have rabidly
fought the preceding, because it was the preceding: and the scientific
prudes, who, in sheer exclusionism, have held lean hands over pale eyes,
denying falls of sulphur. I have many notes upon the sulphurous odor of
meteorites, and many notes upon phosphorescence of things that come from
externality. Some day I shall look over old stories of demons that have
appeared sulphurously upon this earth, with the idea of expressing that
we have often had undesirable visitors from other worlds; or that an
indication of external derivation is sulphurousness. I expect some day
to rationalize demonology, but just at present we are scarcely far
enough advanced to go so far back.
For a circumstantial account of a mass of burning sulphur, about the
size of a man's fist, that fell at Pultusk, Poland, Jan. 30, 1868, upon
a road, where it was stamped out by a crowd of villagers, see _Rept.
Brit. Assoc._, 1874-272.
The power of the exclusionists lies in that in their stand are combined
both modern and archaic systematists. Falls of sandstone and limestone
are repulsive to both theologians and scientists. Sandstone and
limestone suggest other worlds upon which occur processes like
geological processes; but limestone, as a fossiliferous substance, is of
course especially of the unchosen.
In _Science_, March 9, 1888, we read of a block of limestone, said to
have fallen near Middleburg, Florida. It was exhibited at the
Sub-tropical Exposition, at Jacksonville. The writer, in _Science_,
denies that it fell from the sky. His reasoning is:
There is no limestone in the sky;
Therefore this limestone did not fall from the sky.
Better reasoning I cannot conceive of--because we see that a final major
premise--universal--true--would include all things: that, then, would
leave nothing to reason about--so then that all reasoning must be based
upon "something" not universal, or only a phantom intermediate to the
two finalities of nothingness and allness, or negativeness and
positiveness.
_La Nature_, 1890-2-127:
Fall, at Pel-et-Der (L'Aube), France, June 6, 1890, of limestone
pebbles. Identified with limestone at Chateau-Landon--or up and down in
a whirlwind. But they fell with hail--which, in June, could not very
well be identified with ice from Chateau-Landon. Coincidence, perhaps.
Upon page 70, _Science Gossip_, 1887, the Editor says, of a stone that
was reported to have fallen at Little Lever, England, that a sample had
been sent to him. It was sandstone. Therefore it had not fallen, but had
been on the ground in the first place. But, upon page 140, _Science
Gossip_, 1887, is an account of "a large, smooth, water-worn, gritty
sandstone pebble" that had been found in the wood of a full-grown beech
tree. Looks to me as if it had fallen red-hot, and had penetrated the
tree with high velocity. But I have never heard of anything falling
red-hot from a whirlwind--
The wood around this sandstone pebble was black, as if charred.
Dr. Farrington, for instance, in his books, does not even mention
sandstone. However, the British Association, though reluctant, is less
exclusive: _Report_ of 1860, p. 197: substance about the size of a
duck's egg, that fell at Raphoe, Ireland, June 9, 1860--date questioned.
It is not definitely said that this substance was sandstone, but that it
"resembled" friable sandstone.
Falls of salt have occurred often. They have been avoided by
scientific writers, because of the dictum that only water and
not substances held in solution, can be raised by evaporation.
However, falls of salty water have received attention from
Dalton and others, and have been attributed to whirlwinds from the sea.
This is so reasonably contested--quasi-reasonably--as to places not
far from the sea--
But the fall of salt that occurred high in the mountains of
Switzerland--
We could have predicted that that datum could be found somewhere. Let
anything be explained in local terms of the coast of England--but also
has it occurred high in the mountains of Switzerland.
Large crystals of salt fell--in a hailstorm--Aug. 20, 1870, in
Switzerland. The orthodox explanation is a crime: whoever made it,
should have had his finger-prints taken. We are told (_An. Rec. Sci._,
1872) that these objects of salt "came over the Mediterranean from some
part of Africa."
Or the hypnosis of the conventional--provided it be glib. One reads such
an assertion, and provided it be suave and brief and conventional, one
seldom questions--or thinks "very strange" and then forgets. One has an
impression from geography lessons: Mediterranean not more than three
inches wide, on the map; Switzerland only a few more inches away. These
sizable masses of salt are described in the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-3-239,
as "essentially imperfect cubic crystals of common salt." As to
occurrence with hail--that can in one, or ten, or twenty, instances be
called a coincidence.
Another datum: extraordinary year 1883:
London _Times_, Dec. 25, 1883:
Translation from a Turkish newspaper; a substance that fell at Scutari,
Dec. 2, 1883; described as an unknown substance, in particles--or
flakes?--like snow. "It was found to be saltish to the taste, and to
dissolve readily in water."
Miscellaneous:
"Black, capillary matter" that fell, Nov. 16, 1857, at Charleston, S.C.
(_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-31-459).
Fall of small, friable, vesicular masses, from size of a pea to size of
a walnut, at Lobau, Jan. 18, 1835 (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860-85).
Objects that fell at Peshawur, India, June, 1893, during a storm:
substance that looked like crystallized niter, and that tasted like
sugar (_Nature_, July 13, 1893).
I suppose sometimes deep-sea fishes have their noses bumped by cinders.
If their regions be subjacent to Cunard or White Star routes, they're
especially likely to be bumped. I conceive of no inquiry: they're
deep-sea fishes.
Or the slag of Slains. That it was a furnace-product. The Rev. James
Rust seemed to feel bumped. He tried in vain to arouse inquiry.
As to a report, from Chicago, April 9, 1879, that slag had fallen from
the sky, Prof. E.S. Bastian (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-18-78) says that the
slag "had been on the ground in the first place." It was furnace-slag.
"A chemical examination of the specimens has shown that they possess
none of the characteristics of true meteorites."
Over and over and over again, the universal delusion; hope and despair
of attempted positivism; that there can be real criteria, or distinct
characteristics of anything. If anybody can define--not merely suppose,
like Prof. Bastian, that he can define--the true characteristics of
anything, or so localize trueness anywhere, he makes the discovery for
which the cosmos is laboring. He will be instantly translated, like
Elijah, into the Positive Absolute. My own notion is that, in a moment
of super-concentration, Elijah became so nearly a real prophet that he
was translated to heaven, or to the Positive Absolute, with such
velocity that he left an incandescent train behind him. As we go along,
we shall find the "true test of meteoritic material," which in the past
has been taken as an absolute, dissolving into almost utmost nebulosity.
Prof. Bastian explains mechanically, or in terms of the usual reflexes
to all reports of unwelcome substances: that near where the slag had
been found, telegraph wires had been struck by lightning; that particles
of melted wire had been seen to fall near the slag--which had been on
the ground in the first place. But, according to the _New York Times_,
April 14, 1879, about two bushels of this substance had fallen.
Something that was said to have fallen at Darmstadt, June 7, 1846;
listed by Greg (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1867-416) as "only slag."
_Philosophical Magazine_, 4-10-381:
That, in 1855, a large stone was found far in the interior of a tree, in
Battersea Fields.
Sometimes cannon balls are found embedded in trees. Doesn't seem to be
anything to discuss; doesn't seem discussable that any one would cut a
hole in a tree and hide a cannon ball, which one could take to bed, and
hide under one's pillow, just as easily. So with the stone of Battersea
Fields. What is there to say, except that it fell with high velocity and
embedded in the tree? Nevertheless, there was a great deal of
discussion--
Because, at the foot of the tree, as if broken off the stone, fragments
of slag were found.