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375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
68
Time
went
on,
but
the
conventional
determination
to
exclude
data
of
all
falls
to
this
earth,
except
of
substances
of
this
earth,
and
of
ordinary
meteoric
matter,
strengthened.
Annals
of
Philosophy,
16-68:
The
substance
that
fell
in
January,
1686,
is
described
as
"a
mass
of
black
leaves,
having
the
appearance
of
burnt
paper,
but
harder,
and
cohering,
and
brittle."
"Marsh
paper"
is
not
mentioned,
and
there
is
nothing
said
of
the
"conifervae,"
which
seemed
so
convincing
to
the
royal
Irishmen.
Vegetable
composition
is
disregarded,
quite
as
it
might
be
by
someone
who
might
find
it
convenient
to
identify
a
crook-necked
squash
as
a
big
fishhook.
Meteorites
are
usually
covered
with
a
black
crust,
more
or
less
scale-like.
The
substance
of
1686
is
black
and
scale-like.
If
so
be
convenience,
"leaf-likeness"
is
"scale-likeness."
In
this
attempt
to
assimilate
with
the
conventional,
we
are
told
that
the
substance
is
a
mineral
mass:
that
it
is
like
the
black
scales
that
cover
meteorites.
The
scientist
who
made
this
"identification"
was
Von
Grotthus.
He
had
appealed
to
the
god
Chemical
Analysis.
Or
the
power
and
glory
of
mankind--with
which
we're
not
always
so
impressed--but
the
gods
must
tell
us
what
we
want
them
to
tell
us.
We
see
again
that,
though
nothing
has
identity
of
its
own,
anything
can
be
"identified"
as
anything.
Or
there's
nothing
that's
not
reasonable,
if
one
snoopeth
not
into
its
exclusions.
But
here
the
conflict
did
not
end.
Berzelius
examined
the
substance.
He
could
not
find
nickel
in
it.
At
that
time,
the
presence
of
nickel
was
the
"positive"
test
of
meteoritic
matter.
Whereupon,
with
a
supposititious
"positive"
standard
of
judgment
against
him,
Von
Grotthus
revoked
his
"identification."
(Annals
and
Mag.
of
Nat.
Hist.,
1-3-185.)
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