30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



partly disintegrated by the thermal waters, that have produced all 

 these disasters which we now know have been greater in the neighbor- 

 hood of the points where these springs are most active and most abun- 

 dant. Casamicciola, where the hydro-thermal activity of the island is 

 concentrated, has been destroyed forever, for prudence will demand 

 that it never be rebuilt. A single house remains standing in the midst 

 of that disorder of ruins and that accumulation of dead bodies that 

 now cover the site of a watering-place once so prosperous and so 

 thronged. The city of Ischia itself has suffered severely ; Loco 

 Ameno exists no more ; Forio is almost in ruins ; Porto d'Ischia has 

 also been very much tried ; and we might say that there is not one of 

 those picturesque villas, hung upon the mountain-side, or hidden in 

 the verdure of the valleys, that has not been damaged ; and the num- 

 ber of victims buried under the mass of ruins will probably never be 

 fully ascertained. 



We shall have to go very far back in the history of the Neapolitan 

 volcanoes to find an example of another such catastrophe. Since 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried under a cover of ashes and 

 lava, the most recent great disaster we can at all compare with the 

 destruction of Ischia is that of Potenza, which, in December, 1857, cost 

 the lives of more than ten thousand persons. This was in Calabria — 

 that is, in one of the provinces between Vesuvius and Etna, which 

 have frequently been subjected to terrible disturbances. — Translated 

 for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature. 



A PLEA FOE PURE SCIENCE.* 



By H. a, EOWLAND, 

 professor or physios in johns hopkins university. 



THE question is sometimes asked us as to the time of year we like 

 the best. To my mind, the spring is the most delightful ; for 

 Nature then recovers from the apathy of winter, and stirs herself to 

 renewed life. The leaves grow, and the buds open, with a suggestion 

 of vigor delightful to behold ; and we revel in this ever-renewed life 

 of Nature. But this can not always last. The leaves reach their limit ; 

 the buds open to the full, and pass away. Then we begin to ask our- 

 selves whether all this display has been in vain, or whether it has led 

 to a bountiful harvest. 



So this magnificent country of ours has rivaled the vigor of spring 

 in its growth. Forests have been leveled, and eities built, and a large 



* Vice-Presidential Address delivered before Section B, of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, August 15, 1883. Abridged for The Popular Science 

 Monthly. 



