VOL. XIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. If 



they call it, had from Hecla and Italy is opaque, and agrees not with the trans- 

 parent and amber-like sulphur vivum of the ancients; yet it does not follow, 

 that that also was not produced by sublimation, any more than that the stalac- 

 tites, or water-wrought stone, is not so made, because some of it is found 

 opaque, and some crystalline. 



But possibly the pyrites of the volcanos may be more sulphurous than ours : 

 and indeed it is plain that some of ours in England are very lean, and hold bat 

 little sulphur; others again a great deal. And this may be one reason why 

 England is so little troubled with earthquakes; and Italy, and almost all round 

 the Mediterranean sea, so very much. Another reason is the paucity of pyrites 

 in England; besides the subterraneous cavities in England are small and few, 

 compared to the vast vaults in those parts of the world; which is evident from 

 the sudden appearance of whole mountains and islands. 



Second, on the Spontaneous Firing of the Pyrites. — It may be objected, that no 

 body is kindled by itself: but it seems to be apparently otherwise; for vegetables 

 will heat and take fire of themselves, as in the frequent instance of wet hay; 

 and animals are naturally on fire, and men also sufficiently evince it, when in a 

 fever ; and among minerals, the pyrites, both in gross and in vapour, is actually 

 fired of its own accord ; and damps naturally take fire of themselves. Also the 

 volcanoes all the world over argue as much ; for it is very probable that they are 

 mountains consisting in great part of pyrites, as appears by the quantities of 

 sulphur thence sublimed, and the application of the loadstone to the ejected 

 cinders. 



Third, concerning Thunder and Lightning being from the Pyrites. — There are 

 two sorts of instances, besides the arguments before urged, which very much 

 favour the opinion I lately offered, that thunder and lightning owe their matter 

 to the sole breath of the pyrites : and although I am as loath, and as back- 

 ward as any man to give credit to such instances, which seem rather prodigies, 

 than the phajnomena of nature; yet because they often occur in history, it is at 

 least fitting to bring them under further inquiry and examination, that if they 

 can be confuted as false, so much may be done for posterity; and that we at 

 least may not leave on our registers assertions not true, if they can be fairly ' 

 set aside. 



The first sort of them are those which tell us of iron having fallen in great 

 masses, and also in powder after the manner of rain, out of the air. In a part 

 of Italy it rained iron in such a year, and in Germany a great body of iron-stone 

 fell at such a time ; the like Avicenna affirms. Julius Scaliger says he had by 

 him a piece of iron, which was rained in Savoy, where it fell in divers places. 

 Cardan reports that 1200 stones have fallen from heaven, and one of them 



VOL. III. D 



