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202 years ago today, around 2,300 meteorites weighing between one quarter ounce and 20 pounds fell on the town of L’Aigle in northeastern France, 100 miles from Paris.
No one was killed. No one was even hurt. It was the first time scientists could verify that stones could come from outer space.
How the scientists figured it out is anyone's guess. Doctors at the time still believed that "humors" in the blood caused all illness. Bloodletting was the cure-all. Doctors didn't even wash their hands until the late 19th century, when Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister's findings led to antiseptic surgery. Antiseptic practice saved thousands of lives during the Franco-German War, and yet American and British doctors--who killed far more people than they saved--long resisted the theory of sepsis.
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