“Kentucky meat shower”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Kentucky meat shower was an incident occurring for a period of several minutes on March 3, 1876, where what appeared to be flakes of red meat fell from the sky in a {{convert|100|by|50|yd|adj=on}} area near the settlement of Rankin in Bath County, Kentucky.^[1] At the time, Mrs. Crouch, a farmer’s wife, was making soap on her porch one sunny afternoon when she reported seeing the meat pieces fall from the sky. She said she was merely 40 steps from her house when the meat started to slap the ground. The meat looked grisly, according to Mrs. Crouch. Mrs. Crouch and her husband believed the event signified a sign from God. A similar event was later reported, but in Europe. The phenomenon was reported by Scientific American, the New York Times,^[2] and several other publications at the time.^[1]^[3]

Most of the pieces were approximately {{convert|5|cm|in}} square; at least one was {{convert|10|cm|in}} square.^[4] The meat appeared to be beef, but according to the first report in [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/ Scientific American], two gentlemen who tasted it judged it to be lamb or deer.^[5] B. F. Ellington, a local hunter, identified it as bear meat.^[6] Writing in the Sanitarian, Leopold Brandeis identified the substance as Nostoc, a type of cyanobacteria.^[1] Brandeis gave the meat sample to the [https://www.newarkmuseum.org/ 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".^[5]^[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.^[5]

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.^[4] Charles Fort noticed in his first book, The Book of the Damned, that there had been no rain.^[1] 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".^[5] [https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2016/04/kentucky-meat-shower-olympia-springs/ Dr. L. D. Kastenbine] presented this theory in the [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002073424 Louisville Medical News] as the best explanation of the variety of meat.^[4] Vultures vomit as part of making a quick escape and also as a defensive method when threatened.^[6] 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.^[8]

References

1. ^¹²³{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Fort |authorlink=Charles Fort |title=The Book of the Damned |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lW1HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Charles+Fort,+Book+of+the+Damned&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMI86DNluCKyAIVEVeICh3vWwmT#v=onepage&q=Kentucky&f=false |pages=45–46 |location=New York |publisher=Boni and Liveright |year=1919 |oclc=2062036 }}
2. ^{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1876/03/10/81687268.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=Flesh Descending In A Shower.; An Astounding Phenomenon In Kentucky--Fresh Meat Like Mutton Or Venison Falling From A Clear Sky | date=March 10, 1876}}
3. ^(21 March 1876). The Carnal Rain - Careful Investigation of the Kentucky Marvel by a Correspondent, New York Herald, p. 4, col. 1
4. ^¹²{{cite web|url=http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/2014/12/01/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/|title=Blog: The Great Kentucky Meat Shower mystery unwound by projectile vulture vomit|last=Crew|first=Bec|date=December 1, 2014|website=Scientific American}}
5. ^¹²³{{cite web |first=Alasdair |last=Wilkins |url=http://io9.com/5895116/the-mystery-of-raining-animals-and-other-impossible-but-real-weather-weirdness |title=When It Rains Animals: The Science of True Weather Weirdness |website=io9 |date=March 21, 2012 }}
6. ^¹{{cite web |author=Mr. X |title=Debunked: The Kentucky Meat Storm of 1876 |url=http://journalofthebizarre.blogspot.com/2015/05/debunked-kentucky-meat-storm-of-1876.html |website=Journal of the Bizarre |date=3 May 2015}}
7. ^{{cite web |author=zatzbatz |title=Kentucky Meat Shower |url=http://everything2.com/title/Kentucky+Meat+Shower |website=Everything2.com |date=May 9, 2003 }}
8. ^Fort, pp. 288–89.