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IX. Some account of the Eruption of Fesuvius, which occurred in the month of August 

 1834, extracted from the Manuscript Notes of the Cavaliere Monticelli, Foreign 

 Member of the Geological Society, and from other sources; together with a State- 

 ment of the Products of the Eruption, and of the condition of the Volcano sub- 

 sequently to it. By Charles Daubeny, M.D. F.R.S. F.G.S. ^c, Professor of 

 Chemistry and Botany in the University of Oxford. 



Received February 25, — Read March 19, 1835. 



A HE eruption of Vesuvius which occurred in the month of August of last year, 

 excited on the spot an unusual share of interest, from the largeness of the volume 

 of lava at the time discharged, and the extent of the damage it occasioned in its 

 progress down the mountain ; whilst in a scientific point of view it attracted the 

 greater attention, since it was regarded by many as the concluding link in a series of 

 volcanic operations, which had been going on up to that period with only occasional 

 intermissions from the year 1831. 



It was therefore natural, that on my arrival at Naples shortly after the mountain 

 had subsided into a state of comparative repose, I should seize upon the opportunity 

 which appeared to offer of increasing my acquaintance with volcanic phenomena; 

 first, by collecting on the spot such information as could be best relied on, with 

 respect to the leading features of the past eruption ; and secondly, by ascertaining 

 from personal examination the actual condition of the volcano, and the products re- 

 sulting either from its late operations, or from those in actual progress. 



With a view to the former object, I solicited and obtained from the Cavahere 

 MoNTiCELLi (one of the Foreign Members of the Geological Society) a written account 

 of the eruption, from which he has permitted me to extract such particulars as I might 

 deem likely to interest the Members of the Royal Society ; whilst in the hope of ac- 

 complishing the latter object, a considerable portion of the time I spent at Naples 

 was taken up in visiting the several parts of Vesuvius, and in collecting the solid as 

 well as aeriform substances, ejected from its crater, and from the recently erupted 

 lava. 



In the former part, therefore, of the present communication, I can claim no further 

 share, than as the compiler of facts observed and reported to me by others ; and all 

 that I conceive myself personally responsible for is the latter portion, in which I 

 have stated the several products and actual condition of the volcano at the time I 

 visited it. 



MDCCCXXXV. X 



