Kentucky meat shower

The Kentucky meat shower was an incident occurring for a period of several minutes between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on March 3, 1876,[1] where what appeared to be chunks of red meat fell from the sky in a 100-by-50-yard (90-by-45-meter) area near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky.[2] There exist several explanations (from the plausible blood rain to the not so plausible vulture ejecta)[3] as to how this occurred and what the "meat" was. Although the exact type of meat was never identified, various reports suggested it was beef, lamb, deer, bear, horse, or possibly human.

Kentucky meat shower
DateMarch 3, 1876
Time11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
DurationSeveral minutes
LocationBath County, Kentucky, U.S.
CauseInconclusive, possibly regurgitating vultures

Incident

On March 3, 1876, a farmer's wife, Mrs. Couch, was making soap on her porch when she reported seeing a piece of meat fall from the sky. She said she was 40 steps from her house when the meat started to slap the ground. Mrs. Couch and husband believed the event was a sign from God. A similar event was later reported in Europe. The phenomenon was covered by Scientific American, The New York Times, and other publications.[4][2][1]

Most of the pieces of meat were approximately 2 by 2 inches (5 cm × 5 cm); at least one was 4 by 4 inches (10 cm × 10 cm).[5] The meat appeared to be beef, but according to the first report in Scientific American,[5] two men who tasted it judged it to be lamb or deer.[6] Writing in the Sanitarian, Leopold Brandeis identified the substance as Nostoc, a type of cyanobacteria.[2] Brandeis gave the meat sample to the Newark Scientific Association for further analysis, leading to a letter from Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton appearing in the Medical Record and stating the meat had been identified as lung tissue from either a horse or a human infant, "the structure of the organ in these two cases being almost identical."[6][7] The composition of this sample was backed up by further analysis, with two samples of the meat being identified as lung tissue, three as muscle, and two as cartilage.[6]

Brandeis's Nostoc theory relied on the fact that Nostoc expands into a clear jelly-like mass when rain falls on it, often giving the sense that it was falling with the rain.[5] Charles Fort noted in his first book, The Book of the Damned, that there had been no rain.[2] Locals favored the explanation that the meat was vomited up by buzzards, "who, as is their custom, seeing one of their companions disgorge himself, immediately followed suit."[6] Dr. Lewis D. Kastenbine presented this theory in the contemporaneous Louisville Medical News as the best explanation of the variety of meat.[5][8] Vultures vomit as part of making a quick escape and also as a defensive method when threatened.[9] Fort explained the flattened, dry appearance of the meat chunks as the result of pressure, and noted that nine days later, on March 12, 1876, red "corpuscles" with a "vegetable" appearance fell over London.[10]

References
  1. (21 March 1876). The Carnal Rain – Careful Investigation of the Kentucky Marvel by a Correspondent Archived 2018-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, New York Herald, p. 4, col. 1
  2. Fort, Charles (1919). The Book of the Damned. New York: Boni and Liveright. pp. 45–46. OCLC 2062036.
  3. Maxwell, Tom (Spring 2012). "For the Scrutiny of Science and the Light of Revelation" (PDF). Southern Culture. 18 (1). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-08-15.
  4. "Flesh Descending In A Shower.; An Astounding Phenomenon In Kentucky--Fresh Meat Like Mutton Or Venison Falling From A Clear Sky" (PDF). The New York Times. March 10, 1876. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 19, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  5. Crew, Bec (December 1, 2014). "Blog: The Great Kentucky Meat Shower mystery unwound by projectile vulture vomit". Scientific American. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  6. Wilkins, Alasdair (March 21, 2012). "When It Rains Animals: The Science of True Weather Weirdness". io9. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  7. zatzbatz (May 9, 2003). "Kentucky Meat Shower". Everything2.com. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  8. The Louisville Medical News: a weekly journal of medicine and surgery. v. 1-20. 1876–1885. Archived from the original on 2018-10-23. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  9. Mr. X (3 May 2015). "Debunked: The Kentucky Meat Storm of 1876". Journal of the Bizarre. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  10. Fort, pp. 288–89.
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