438 ‘Rev. Mr. Conybeare on the Greek Fire. [Dec. 
pretation, but many of their well-known metaphors have an 
aspect far more harsh and enigmatical. STP T aA 
On the subject of the Greek fire mentioned by Joinville, I 
regret that I cannot see quite so clearly as Dr. M: does, the 
proof of its resemblance to any thing in our modern artillery. 
The term petrarium or perriere seems to have been applied com- 
monly to that variety of balista which threw large stones. Had 
i tbeen a mortar, Joinville would, I should think, have mentioned 
its novelty. There must be some discrepancies too in the MS. 
text of his description. The only edition within my reach (Paris, 
8vo. 1785) does not any where mention the carcase as sent from 
the bottom of the Perriere. Allowing this, however, to be the 
correct reading, it would be equally descriptive of that variety 
of balista in which the missile body was projected from a cup 
attached 'to the end of a lever strained backwards until parallel, 
or nearly so, with the horizon. Joinville, moreover, states, that 
the fire was extinguished, and that in one case by a single man, 
‘par une’ home que avions, propre a ce faire.” In fact, the dread 
of the honest chronicler and his companions was not so much 
that of personal injury from the fire, as from the destruction of 
their wooden cuniculi or cat-castles (chatz chasteilz). It would 
surely be beyond the power Of a single man to extinguish a caisse 
filled with an inflammable compound of which nitre made a part, 
while a barrel or cradle-full of tow dipped in bituminous matter, 
if at a distance from any thing else inflammable, might be smo- 
thered up with sand and dirt at no great peril.* 
In later times, the use of artillery appears, as Dr. M. remarks, 
gradually to have driven the Greek fire off the stage ; but as its 
use decreased, the recipe for its fabrication became much 
more complicated and mysterious. V. Biringuccio + gives a 
most formidable list of the substances required for ensuring the 
highest degree of success in such compounds. Among these 
the oleum sulphuris is almost invariably prominent, an addition 
which must, by decomposing the nitre, have rather lessened 
than added to their foree. The very intricacy and clumsiness of 
his formulz show that such mixtures were becoming rapidly the 
objects rather of quackery than of practicaluse. At a still more 
recent period, Fludd, the well-known mystic, declines revealing 
the composition used for fire-pots, as being a secret which 
belonged to his country. 
* My edition of Joinville contains a long note on the Greek fire by the learned Du 
Fresne: he carries it no higher than Callinicus. He quotes two remarkable passages 
from the Tactics of Leon and the Alexias of A. Comnena; but there is some obscurity 
in his interpretations, especially of the latter; and I have not at present access to the 
original text of either. 
+ Pirotechnia, 1.10, c. 9. The same writer gives (1. 10, c.5) a curious description 
of a squib or rocket, made of wood or iron, and capable of throwing stones or balls. 
This, which has been transcribed into later works on pyrotechny, or some like rude 
attempt, may have suggested the rockets now in use. 
{ Fludd Macrocesmus, p. 422. 
sae a ees ee 
