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7. Shower of red matter like blood and muscle.— We are indebted to Prof. Troost, of Nashville, Tennessee for an interesting notice of a remarkable event. It appears from communications made to that gentleman, that on Friday, August 17, between one and two o'clock, P. M., the negroes of Mr. Chandler, near Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee, came in and reported that it had been raining blood in the tobacco field where they had been at work; that near noon there was a rattling noise like rain or hail, and drops of blood, as they supposed, which fell from a red cloud which was flying over. Intelligent men visited the ground, and observed drops apparently of blood on the upper surface of the tobacco leaves, and portions of flesh and fat — one piece one and a half inches long, emitting a very offensive smell over the field.
The drops evidently fell perpendicularly over a space from forty to sixty yards broad, and six or eight hundred yards long. Some particles appeared to have been clear blood uncombincd with any thing else; others, blood united with muscular fibre and fat. Dr. Troost, after visting the place, is decidedly of the opinion that it was animal matter, but he thinks not blood; although he distinctly distinguished muscular fibres, on maceration of the matter in water, which separated longitduinally, as in the case of drid beef; they were of a reddish brown color. The pieces supposed to be blood were brown and resembled glue. There was a distinct smell of animal matter in a state of putrefaction.
Both the muscular part and that which had been called blood, were heated in a glass tube, and were similarly affected as beef would have brown fluid rose, and a black animal charcoal remained. Dr. Troost concluded, that without doubt this is animal matter, and belongs to our globe. He cites many instances of red rain, red dust, red sand, red snow, showers of blood, so called, &c. in various centuries from 472 of our era to 1814, and gives the authorities. There is now no room to relate or discuss these statements, and it remains only to give the conclusion of Dr. Troost.
After alluding to the well known power of wind to raise materials high into the atmosphere and to transport them to the distance of many (even in some cases, as in volcanic eruptions, hundreds of miles,) he observes: "Such a wind might have taken up part of an animal which was in a state of decomposition, and have brought it in contact with an electric cloud, in which it was kept in a state of partial fluidity or viscosity. In this case, the cloud which was seen by the negroes, as well as the state in which the materials were, is accounted for."
Dr. Troost gives many cases of transported seeds, pollen, and similar things— which have been taken for showers of sulphur. When we remember that even fishes have fallen in showers, we cannot doubt that whirlwinds may elevate and transport parts of animals and deposit them in distance places.
A strong west wind blew through clear skies July 20, 1851, the day the meat fell, according to a news account published July 24, 1851, in the San Francisco Daily Herald.
Major Heintzleman and another officer, Major Allen, observed the “meat shower” that day. Allen was struck by one of the pieces that fell during the shower that lasted two or three minutes, according to the Daily Herald account.
“The pieces were from the size of a pigeon’s egg up to that of an orange — the heaviest perhaps weighing three ounces,” the news article reported.
No birds were seen at the time, the article said, noting that other “meat showers” had been blamed on flocks of regurgitating birds, including vultures.
Allen and the post surgeon collected some samples of the meat, which appeared to be beef. One piece examined after the fall had a portion of a small blood vessel, some muscle sheath and fiber.
“It was slightly tainted,” the news story reported.
The meat shower covered an area about 300 yards long and 80 yards wide. Soldiers gathered the rest, which the report said amounted to between two and a half and five bushels in bulk.
Additionally, “No pieces of bone were found,” the report said.
A meat shower was reported to have fallen on a single farm on the edge of town. The incident, which was witnessed by two people, began when they noticed that the farmer's chickens were pecking at something on the ground. Upon closer observations, the witnesses saw that it was flesh, and they then noticed that it was falling around them from the cloudless sky. The farmer collected some samples before the chickens could eat all of them, noting that the samples were three to four inches long and approximately two inches wide, each weighing approximately one-quarter pound. The composition of the specimens appeared to be liver mixed with grain.
What next from California? A San Jose paper relates that a shower of fresh meat has fallen upon a spot in that vicinity. The ground to the extent of about five acres was covered with meat, which fell from a clear sky. One gentleman who was standing in the field was pelted with the little chunks, and another made quite a collection of the fragments to show to the editor.
Flesh and blood that fell "from the sky," upon Mr. J. Hudson's farm, in Los Nietos Township, California -- a shower that lasted three minutes and covered an area of two acres. The conventional explanation is that these substances had been disgorged by flying buzzards. "The day was perfectly clear, and the sun was shining, and there was no perceptible breeze," and if anybody saw buzzards, buzzards were not mentioned.
The story is told in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Aug. 9, 1869.(27) The flesh was in fine particles, [88/89] and also in strips, from one to six inches long. There were short, fine hairs. One of the witnesses took specimens to Los Angeles, and showed them to the Editor of the Los Angeles News, as told in the News, August 3rd. The Editor wrote that he had seen, but had not kept the disagreeable objects, to the regret of many persons who had besieged him for more information. "That the meat fell, we can not doubt. Even the parsons of the neighborhood are willing to vouch for that. Where it came from, we can not even conjecture." In the Bulletin, it is said that, about two months before, flesh and blood had fallen from the sky, in Santa Clara County, California.
A report was current at Los Angeles on the 4th inst. that a heavy shower of meat had fallen from the clouds, upon the corn fields of El Monte. About this time last year a similar shower fell in Los Nietos, with these differences, then it was raw, now it is said to be "boiled;" then the blades of the standing corn were "drenched with blood," now they are moistened by a kind of homeopathic soup.
Louisville, March 9. — The Bath County (Ky.) News of this date saysl "On last Friday a shower of meat fell near the house of Allen Crouch, who lives some two or three miles from the Olympian Springs in the southern portion of the county, covering a strip of ground about one hundred yards in length and fifty wide. Mrs. Crouch was out in the yard at the time, engaged in making soap, when meat which looked like beef began to fall around her. The sky was perfectly clear at the time, and she said it fell like large snow flakes, the pieces as a general thing not being much larger. One piece fell near her which was three or four inches square. Mr. Harrison Gill, whose veracity is unquestionable, and from whom we obtained the above facts, hearing of the occurrence visted the locality the next day, and says he saw particles of meat sticking to the fences and scattered over theground. The meat when it first fell appeared to be perfectly fresh.
The correspondent of the Louisville Commercial, writing from Mount Sterling, corroborates the above, and says the pieces of flesh were of various sizes and shapes, some of them being two inches square. Two gentlemen, who tasted the meat, express the opinion that it was either mutton or venison.
Fortunately, Brandeis didn't play a completely useless role in the investigation, because he had given a couple of mystery meat samples to experienced histologist and president of the Newark Scientific Association, Dr. A. Mead Edwards, who said it was likely the lung tissue of a human infant or a horse. Another histologist, Dr. J.W.S. Arnold, studied the specimens and agreed, concluding in The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science that they consisted of some kind of animal cartilage and lung tissue.
Eventually, seven samples were examined by several scientists, who confirmed two to be lung tissue, three to be muscular tissue, and two were said to be made of cartilage. So how did they come to be involved in the Infamous Kentucky Shower of Flesh?
Enter the man with the best explanation for the "shower of quivering flesh” that we’re probably ever going to get - Dr L. D Kastenbine, who wrote in a 1876 edition of the Louisville Medical News that it was, quite literally, a coordinated bout of projectile vulture vomit.
Having obtained a sample of his own, Kastenbine set fire to it and observed that it smelt distinctly of rancid mutton. “The only plausible theory explanatory of this anomalous shower appears to me to be that suggested by the old Ohio farmer - the disgorgement of some vultures that were sailing over the spot, from their immense height, the particles were scattered by the prevailing wind over the ground," he wrote. “The variety of tissue discovered - muscular, connective, fatty, structureless etc - can be explained only by this theory.”
"The lady was in the nursery of the house and her husband was in the field looking after the animals. At that moment he heard a rain on the house, as if it were hail, and when he came out he saw the pieces of meat scattered in a radius of about 50 meters above the nursery and the house, "said Ramón Cuevas, president of the Commission of Promotion of Picun Bridge.
It was the morn in the afternoon, but the community of 540 inhabitants near Zapala can not stop talking about the subject.
Cuevas says that no one heard airplanes or helicopters pass, as one might suppose that the cellar was opened and a load of prime beef fell, since it was lean and had no bones.
"There were no bones visible," he added.
I thought it was hail
The woman heard noises and thought it was hail. But he saw flesh and blood on the roof. When she arrived, her husband told her and they called the 22 police station in Zapala, whose prosecution tries to elucidate the case.
Cuevas added that the meat was fresh. "Something weird, something unusual, the family is pretty bad, because they want to know and have a trauma about this fact."
Thanks for reading (skimming, whatever, I'm not picky)! Here's a palate cleanser:
originally posted by: FauxMulder
a reply to: theantediluvian
It's obviously caused by aliens dumping their failed experiments.
I hope it rains gold next. Cool thread man.
originally posted by: ketsuko
Huh ...
With the exception of the one in Argentina, you cited either TN/KY or California.