ON THE FACTS OF EARTHQUAKE PHENOMENA. 87 
tremor sideways, but it occasionally and in some few places happens that it appears 
like a violent throbbing from below upwards. This seldom occurs, for it is not easy 
_ for much motive power to be collected in this way, for there is a much greater evo- 
lution of this sideways than upwards. When such an earthquake takes place, a 
multitude of stones are thrown up as if shaken up ina sieve. It was by an earth- 
quake of this sort that the parts about Sipylos were overthrown, and the plain called 
Phlegrean, and the Ligurian country. 
“Βα in islands far out to sea, earthquakes are less felt than in those which are 
near shore. For the great mass of the sea cools the exhalations and keeps them 
down by its force and weight. And besides, the sea is in constant motion, and is 
not shaken, overcome by the winds. And because it occupies a great space, the ex- 
halations are not produced into, but out of this, and those which are produced in 
the earth follow these. 
«« But those islands which are close to the main land are in fact part of it, for the 
intervening water on account of its small size has no force. But islands far at sea 
cannot be moved but with the whole sea which surrounds them. 
“Concerning earthquakes therefore, and their nature, and causes, and all other 
circumstatices concerning them, we have here treated of the principal things.”— 
Arist. Meteor., Lib. 11. cap. 7-8. 
«Tt often happens, however, that a similar wind, hidden in the earth, when these 
(i. e. means of exit) are absent, when it has insinuated itself into hollow places and 
dark passages in the earth, as if breaking out from its proper resting-places, pro- 
duces a vibratory motion in many places round. 
“ And it often happens that when much wind from without has got into these hol- 
lows, all means of exit being cut off, in turning itself within it shakes the earth with 
immense force, in vain seeking a place of exit, from which arises that convulsion of 
nature which we call an earthquake. 
** But those earthquakes which shake the earth obliquely at an acute angle are 
called ‘ Hpiclinte,’ as acting in a transverse direction. 
“But those which toss the earth up and down at a right angle are called 
‘ Braste,’ from their likeness to the motion of boiling water. 
“«‘ But when the sinking of the ground leaves hollows in its subsidence, they are 
called ‘ Chasmatiz,’ from their gaping. 
“ But those which produce chasms by an eruption are called ‘ Rhectz,’ that is 
breakers forth. Now some of these in their eruption carry forth blasts of wind, 
Others stones, others mud. ‘There are some also which produce springs where 
before they did not exist. 
“ Those are called ‘ Ostee’ which with one thrust overturn what they move. 
«But thosé which with much shaking, and inclining, and vibrating to either side, 
always throw the objects they shake upright again, are called ‘ Palmati,’ that is 
vibratory, as producing an affection very like a tremor.””—Arist., De Mundo. cap. 4. 
A mere regard for the verbal construction of the preceding passages 
would, on the whole, lead the reader (especially if unaided by reference to the 
Greek) to the conclusion, that Aristotle meant to convey that wind simply 
in some form or another, was the efficient cause of earthquakes; after care- 
ful consideration, however, I am still disposed to adhere to the view given 
in the foregoing report, and to believe that in so far as he had in reality any 
distinct idea, it was that of some intangible, imponderable force or agent 
present in the earth and above it, acting upon the winds, and acted on by 
them, though not the winds themselves, and giving rise in such reactions to 
earthquakes and voleatioes. Perhaps from the want of any distinct ideas as 
_ to atmology, and its relations to those forces which we call molecular, and 
having no clear metaphysics of spirit and matter, an abuse of words is found 
in the Greek physical writers, which often renders them (as throughout the 
above passages) almost unintelligible. The word πνεῦμα was used to express 
_ pure spirit, and the wind (compare John’s Gospel, cap. 3, ver. 8), as well as 
condensable vapours, and this alike by the philosopher and by the vulgar. 
