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BOOK OF THE DAMNED
By Charles Fort
CHAPTER: 01,
02, 03,
04, 05,
06, 07,
08, 09,
10, 11,
12, 13,
14, 15,
16, 17,
18, 19,
20, 21,
22, 23,
24, 25,
26, 27,
28
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 Middleburgh, 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, waterworn, 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. 107: 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 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 the 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 nitre, 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 bu |
