294 Miscellaneous Correspondence* 



It is required that the nature and quality of the manure, 

 and of the land on which it is spread be described. 



Accounts, verified by certificates, to be produced on or 

 before the first Tuesday in March 1805. 



L. Miscellaneous Correspondence* 



To Mr. Tilloeh. 



v_/ne essential service which is rendered by a Philosophical 

 Journal, conducted on the plan which you pursue, is to 

 unite, and bring into a more general point of view, many 

 curious facts and remarks that are scattered up and down in 

 literature, and often in works where you would least expect 

 to find them. The learned Warhurton, in his Divine Le- 

 gation of Moses (vol. ii. 4to. ed. p. 241.), has the follow- 

 ing note, referring to this preceding passage: if. We are 

 told that Pythagoras's popular account of earthquakes was, 

 that they were occasioned by a synod of ghosts assembled 

 under ground.'' But Jamblichus informs us, that he some- 

 times predicted earthquakes, by the taste of well-water. — 

 One scarce meets with any thing in antiquity concerning 

 Pythagoras's knowledge in physics, but what gives m 

 fresh cause to admire the wonderful sagacity of that extra- 

 ordinary man. This story of his predicting earthquakes 

 has so much the air of a fable, that I believe it has gene- 

 rally been ranked (as it is by Stanley) with that heap of 

 trash, which the enthusiastic Pythagoreans and Platonists 

 of the lower ages have raked together concerning him. 

 Yet we learn from the collections of Pliny the elder, 

 which say, " futnro terrce jnotu, est in puteis turhidior 

 aqua," 1. ii. c. 83. that the antients profited of this dis- 

 covery, verified by a modern relation of Paul Dudley, Esq. 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 437- p. 72, who, 

 speaking of an earthquake which lately happened, was sur- 

 prised to find his water, that used to be always sweet and 

 limpid, stink to that degree that they could make no use 

 of it, nor scarce bear the house when it was brought in ; 

 and thinking some carrion was got into the well, he 

 searched the bottom, but found it clear and good, though 

 the colour of the water was turned wheyish, or pale. In 

 about seven days after the earthquake, his water began to 

 ' mend, and in three days more returned to its former sweet- 

 ness and colour. Yours, &c. 



R. Ml^OKQUEEN. 



