275 Dr, Prevost and M, Dumas on [Oci'. 



(about 400 years before Christ), we should probably have had 

 some records of it; therefore it is fair to presume that the Cata^ 

 combs are of more ancient date. I obtained an ancient Greek 

 vase taken from one of these sepulchres, which has all the cha- 

 meters of the very earhest period of the arts. 



The island is still subject to frequent earthquakes; and proba- 

 bly it was an exertion of this volcano, or of that at Santorini, 

 which destroyed one of the principal towns of Candia or Crete, 

 with its inhabitants, in the year 1809. 



About four miles to the north-east of Milo is Pohno (or Burnt 

 Island), which consists entirely of one immense cinder, with a 

 central hill composed of a smooth-fractured, compact, baked 

 clay, of a dusky white colour, appearing like a heap of pottery, 

 and the highest point being about 500 feet above the sea. To 

 ascend this hill, it is necessary to pass along a ridge, of which 

 there are eight, that support the central mass. The intervals 

 of these ridges form ravines of pumice stone. The island is 

 uninhabited, and entirely without fresh water, which is not the 

 case with Milo, where there are springs of good water. Upon 

 ascending the hill of Pohno, I observed some modern excava- 

 tions, like mines, but there is not any apparent metaUic substance 

 that could have been followed, and they extend about 20 yards 

 into the hill, showing the invariable volcanic formation of the 

 island. There are here no remains of ancient ruins, and there is 

 scarcely auy vegetatioii. 



Article VIII. 



An Examination of the Blood, By J. L. Prevost, MD. and 

 J. A. Dumas.* 



The authors commence their memoir with observing, that the 

 previous microscopic examination of the blood had proved that 

 this fluid during life is merely serum, holding small regular inso- 

 luble corpuscules in suspension. These corpuscules are always 

 composed of a central colourless spheroid, inclosed in a red 

 coloured membrane, from which it readily separates after death. 

 This white central spheroid is transparent and spherical in those 

 animals which have circular particles, and oval when the parti- 

 cles are elliptical In the first case its diameter is constant; in 

 the second, various. The colouring matter is readily divisible, 

 but insoluble in water, and always separates from it by standing, 



The three substances which are examined in the chemical 



• Abstracted from the Annalets de Chionie et de Phyiique, tome xxiii. p. 50. 



