1856] Sir C, Lyell, on the Temple of Serapis, 207 



Taylor, Reo.W, FM.S, itf.iB./.— Magazine for the Blind. No. 17. 4to. 1855. 



TJiotnas, Rev. Vaughan (the AuthorJ— Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Wameford, 

 LLD. 8vo. 1855. 



Vereiiis zur Be/orderuiig des Gewerbjleisses in Prewsi^n— Verhandlungen, Nov. 

 und Dec. 1855. 4to. Berlin. 



Vincent, B. Assist. Sec. i?./.— Tracts by Bps. Burnett and Fowler, and by W. 

 Whiston, &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 1719-31. 



Yatesy Jaines, Esi^. F.R.S. M.R.I, {the ^ uiAorJ— Narrative of the Origin and 

 Formation of the International Association for obtaining a uniform Deci- 

 mal System of Measures, Weights, and Coins. 8vo. 1856. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 7, 1856. 



SiE B. C. Brodie, Bart. D.C.L. F.R.S. Vice-President, 

 in the Cliair. 



SiE Charles Lyell, F.R.S. 

 On the succesdve CJmnges of the Temple of Serapis, 



The Temple of Serapis, near Naples, is, perhaps, of all the struc- 

 tures raised by the liands of man, the one which affords most in- 

 struction to a geologist. It has not only undergone a wonderful 

 succession of changes in past time, but is still undergoing changes 

 of condition, so that it is ever a matter of fresh interest to learn 

 what may be the present state of the temple, and to speculate on 

 what next may happen to it. Tliis edifice was exhumed in 1750, 

 from a mixed deposit, extending for miles along the eastern shores 

 of the Bay of Baiae, and consisting partly of strata containing marine 

 shells, with fragments of bricks, pottery, and sculpture, and partly 

 of volcanic matter of subaerial origin. Various theories were pro- 

 posed in the last century to explain the lithodomous perforations, 

 and attaciied serpulae, observed on the middle zone of the three erect 

 marble columns now standing ; some writers, and the celebrated 

 Goethe among the rest, suggesting that a lagoon had once existed 

 in the atrium, filled, during a temporary incursion of the sea, with 

 salt water, and that marine mollusca and annelids flourished for 

 years in this lagoon, at a height of 12 feet or more above the sea 

 level. This hypothesis was advanced at a time when almost any 

 amount of fluctuation in the level of the sea was thought more pro- 

 bable than the slightest alteration in the level of the solid land. 

 In 1807, the architect Niccolini observed that the pavement of the 

 temple was dry, except when a violent south wind was blowing ; 

 whereas, on revisiting the temple 15 years later, he found the pave- 

 ment covered by salt water twice every day at high tide. This 

 induced him to make a series of measurements from year to year, 

 Vol. II. p 



