268 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 257. 



gregation of the Index to 1846, dated Madrid, 

 1848. 



I now give the title of the work, premising that 

 it is expurgutory, as subsequently expressed, as 

 well as prohibitory. 



" Indice General de los Libros Prohibitos por la santa 

 General Inquisicion de Espana liasta 25 de Agosto de 

 1805, y^por S. Santidad hasta fin del ano 1842, al que 

 acompana un Apendice que comprendc los Edictos de la 

 Inquisicion posteriores al de 25 de Agosto de 1805, hasta 

 el de 29 de Mayo de 1819 (ultimo que se publico), y los 

 Decretos de S. Santidad y de la sagrada congregacion del 

 Indice hasta 3 de Marzo de 1846. 



" Impreso con las licencias necesarias." 



The second title, occupying the recto of the 

 second leaf, simply announces that the present 

 index is drawn up from the last Spanish index and 

 supplement, and from the index (of Malines or 

 Mechlin) according to the Roman index of 1835. 

 It does not appear why the Mechlin reprint of 

 the Roman edition is preferred to the Roman 

 itself, and why the new articles derived from the 

 Roman are distinguished by the prefix of the 

 mark *. 



The three Copernican names, as well as the 

 Libri teaching the Copernican theory of the solar 

 system, are here silently removed, as in the two 

 last Roman indices. The object probably was, to 

 avoid a collision between the papal and royal au- 

 thorities on the subject of literary proscriptions, 

 a reasonable jealousy of that kind having been 

 entertained from the beginning. 



I should add that the present index is a hand- 

 some volume in royal octavo, pp. xxx., 363, and 

 additional 31. J. M. 



Sutton Coldfield. 



BKTDONE THE TOURIST. 



(Vol, ix. passim ; Vol. x., p. 131.) 

 Your correspondents, in their communications 

 respecting Brydone, appear to have overlooked 

 some circumstances which ought not to be lost 

 sight of in considering the attacks on that author. 

 At the time he published his Tour any researches, 

 such as have been so successfully pursued by 

 geologists in our own day, were vehemently op- 

 posed by a large class of persons as being dan- 

 gerous to religion. His work contained some 

 speculations on the antiquity of Mount Etna, 

 founded on an examination of its lavas, at which 

 these persons took alarm ; while still more serious 

 offence was given to the Roman Catholic Church 

 by the author fathering the obnoxious speculations 

 on one of its own ecclesiastics, the Abbe Recupero 

 of Catania ; and by his treating some of its cere- 

 monies, and its miracles, with no small degree of 

 ridicule. Brydone therefore, having many ene- 

 mies anxious to discredit him, was not likely to 

 escape attack ; but the charges brought against 



him ought, in such a case, to be looked upon with 

 suspicion, and should not be adopted unless on 

 strict inquiry. 



One of the principal authorities against Brydone 

 is the memoir of him contained in the Biographic 

 Universelle, v. 59., referred to by your correspon- 

 dent Mr. Macbay, where it is said : 



" Ses erreurs sur plusieurs points sont ^videntes : U 

 donne 4000 toises de hauteur a VEtna, qui rCen a que 1662 ; 

 il commet d'autres fautes qui ont et^ relevees par les 

 voyageurs venus aprfes lui." 



A reference to the Tour itself will show how 

 unfounded is this statement. Brydone there says : 



" Kircher pretends to have measured it [ JE'fna], and to 

 have found it 4000 French toises in height, which is much 

 more than any of the Andes, or indeed than any mountain 

 upon earth. The Italian mathematicians are still more 

 absurd. Some make it eight miles, some six, and some 

 four. Amici, the last, and I believe the most accurate, 

 that ever attempted it, brings it to three miles 2G4 paces ; 

 but even this must be exceedingly erroneous, and pro- 

 bably the perpendicular height of Etna does not exceed 

 12,000 feet, or little more than two miles." — Tour through 

 Sicily and Malta, Let. XI. 



Thus it appears that Brydone exposed and cor- 

 rected the very mistake he is accused of making. 

 His own estimate of the height of the mountain is 

 very much less than that of any of his prede- 

 cessors, and is derived from barometric observa- 

 tions made by himself, and given in a subsequent 

 page. These observations afford a strong proof 

 of his accuracy in these matters : for, if the more 

 correct formula? now used be applied to them, 

 they will be found to give the true height of the 

 mountain within about 200 feet ; a wonderfully 

 small error, considering the imperfect instruments 

 with which they were made. 



In the above case, the writers of the memoir 

 cannot be suspected of having invented the false- 

 hood. It is clear that they have been led into it 

 by placing too much reliance on the statement of 

 others ; but it furnishes a good instance of how 

 the most unfounded assertion may acquire the 

 authority of respectable names to back it. 



The next charge against Brydone is a more 

 serious one, but put forward with less confidence. 

 It is said that his account of his ascent to the 

 summit of Etna is a fiction. On this point a per- 

 son very intimately acquainted with Brydone 

 writes thus in a private letter : 



" It is impossible for me to give any proof that Mr. 

 Brydone ascended Etna some years before I was born, but 

 I have no more doubt of it than I have of my own ascent 

 of Minto Hill, which will be equally difficult of proof in 

 the next century. He certainly used to talk of it with 

 pleasure. I have heard him criticised for some of his 

 speculations, and he may have been charged with inac- 

 curacy in statements made upon the information of others, 

 but no one ever dreamed of doubting his scrupulous 

 veracity where he spoke of his own observation. He was 

 indeed a singularly open-minded and veracious man, the 

 furthest possible from boastful, and disposed to make 

 light of, rather than to exaggerate any of his adventures." 



