312 Dr. Cutbush on the Greek Fire. 
noted composition called the Grecian fire; which, burning 
with increased intensity under water, became a most formi- 
dable instrument against an inimical fleet. The Naptha 
springs were visited by Hanway, who has given a detailed 
account of them: also by Kempfer, and Gmelin. Hanway 
observes, that the quantity is so great, that the Persians load 
it in bulk in their wretched vessels, so that sometimes the 
sea is covered with it for leagues together ; and that when the 
weather is thick and hazy, the springs boil up the higher, 
and the naptha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, 
and runs in a flame into the sea in great quantities, to a dis- 
tance almost incredible. 
Besides the former use of naptha for the preparation of 
the re, the ancients, especially the Magi performed 
various tricks, or deceptions with it, principally on account 
of its extreme inflammability. Some of these deceptions 
are recorded in history. According to Plutarch, the great 
inflammability of naptha was exhibited to Alexander the 
Great at Ecbatana, with which he was astonished and de- 
lighted, and the. same author, as well as Pliny and Galen in 
particular, asserts that it was with naptha, that Medea de- 
stroyed Creusa, the daughter of Creon. She sent to this 
princess a dress, previously soaked in it, which burst into 
flames as she approached the fire of the altar. It is sup- 
posed to have been naptha also, in which the dress of Her- 
cules was dipped, and not the blood of Nessus, that took fire 
in the same manner. When offerings caught fire impercep- 
— it is conjectured that this oil must have been employ- 
ed. 
From the facts thus given we may conclude, Ist. That 
the Greek fire, so called, was composed for the principal 
partofnaptha; 2d. That the naptha, as it is a powerful sol- 
vent of rezins, must have been combined either with liquid 
turpentine, or rozin, and probably with camphor, as inflamed 
camphor resists considerably the action of water ; 3d. That 
the composition of the original Greek fire was fluid, as it 
was thrown out by forcing pumps, or through pipes which 
could not have been the case had it been solid; 4th. That 
although generally used in a fluid state, it was sometimes 
employed like the modern carcass by soaking in it tow, &c. 
and then used as an incendiary ; 5th. That it does not ap- 
pear upon any testimony extant that nitre, or salt petre en~ 
