Discoveries' at Pompeia, 233 



lead to Important results ; but they will at the same time 

 discourage those who still hope to find the solid nucleus of 

 the earth. The geologists on the Continent now begin to 

 abandon their own system, in order to embrace that of 

 Humboldt and Ebel. 



Mr. Parkinson has withdrawn the Introduction to ike 

 Kfwivledge of Fossils, announced at the end of his first 

 volume oi Organic Remains of a former World, considering 

 its publication as entirely superseded by Mr. Martin's ex- 

 cellent systematic Outlines ot" the same subject. The third 

 volume of Organic Remains is in considerable forwardness. 



In the month of October last, the viceroy of Italy and 

 his consort visited the ruins of the ancient Pompeia, ac- 

 companied by chevalier Arditi,superintendant of the Royal 

 Neapolitan Museum. A fresh search having been made 

 for antiquities a few days before by order of iheir majes- , 

 ties, M. Arditi presented on the above occasion several 

 pieces of ancient pitch, a vessel full of wheat, a piece of 

 coral, several beautiful paintings, and a lamp of baked 

 earth in the form of a leaf, and bearing a Latin inscription. 

 This lamp was covered with a very fine varnish or vitrifica- 

 tion, which gave it a silvery or pearly appearance. It 

 seems to be a mistake therefore of some authors, when they 

 inform us that this vitrification was not invented until the 

 fifteenth century by hue de la Rubria, a Florentine sculptor. 



Their majesties having expressed a desire to have some of 

 the ruins dug up under their own inspection, the workmen 

 had the good fortune to find several pieces of money of va- 

 .xious denominations : a qu^tntity of bronzes, among which 

 was a very fine vase, and an urn for wine : some articles 

 formed of bones ; a great quantity of glasses of various 

 dimensions and shapes ; and in particular a great number 

 of vases improperly called Etruscan, on which were Latin 

 inscriptions. On the same occasion, their majesties found 

 some works in marble, and in particular some comic masks : 

 a few small but elegant altars, adorned with bas-reliefs and 

 weights marked with cyphers in the upper part. 



Hitherto only a single subterranean apartment had been 

 discovered at Pompeia, improperly called a cantino, but 

 which ought rather to have been named crypto-portico: in 

 the recent diggings one was discovered consisting of several 

 storied. It is remarkable for having a pipe or tube of stucco 

 placed in a corner, and intended for the conveyance of 



smoke. 



