ai4 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANS A^CTIONS. [aNNO l6g7. 



observing that in any jiart of the plain of Modeiia, and 63 feet deep, it is 

 certain to have an excellent spring of most pure water. That in digging the 

 first 14 feet, they met with the traces of an old city, causeways of flint, trades^ 

 men's shops, the pavements of houses ; which he says, cannot be attributed to 

 the city's being ruined and rebuilt, for all the plain is of the same height with 

 the city. 



Below that is fenny or marshy ground, full of reeds, which oontinues till 

 they come to the depth of 28 feet ; where they meet with a bed of clay 1 1 feet 

 thick. Then appears a marshy ground, not unlike the former ; and next a bed 

 of clay, but not so tiiick as the former. Then a bed of marshy ground. Lastly, 

 a bed of clay and sand, mixed with sea products. This last bed ihey, pierce with 

 an auger, on the pulling up of which, the water flows up with so great violence, 

 that it throws up sand and pebbles, sometimes weighing 4 or 5 ounces. Before 

 they bore this last bed, they hear a remarkable murmur and noise; which, on 

 the author's stamping on the ground with his foot, increased to such a degree 

 that fearing all would suddenly fall about his ears, he ordered himself quickly to 

 be drawn up. Upon the first rising of the water in one of these wells, the water 

 settles in the next wells. The number of these is such, as to make a canal 

 large enough for swimming vessels in which they go to Venice. 



He says that these are running waters, which he proves by the noise they 

 make before boring, and by their sudden rising after the auger is drawn out. 

 He derives them from a cistern in the Appenine mountains, which runs through 

 a bed of sand lying under the last bed of clay. 



In chap. 3, he proves, that this source cannot be from a subterraneovis river. 

 Chap. 4, treats of the ancient state of the country, on this and the other side 

 of the river Po. Chap. 5, treats of the nature and condition of this hidden 

 spring. Chap. 0, the progress and end of the waters is inquired into, and a 

 reason is given of the use of things, which are observed in the digging of the 

 wells. Chap. 7, contains very curious experiments about the motions of fluids, 



author has taken a very exiended view of his subject, and composed a curious, and in several respects 

 a useful book ; yet it is a woik in which the extracts inserted from other writers greatly out-number 

 the facts derived from his own oliserv;ition ; and in which the descriptions oi some of the disorders 

 are by no means so accurate as could be desired, nor the prescribed remedies (in general) the best that 

 might liave been recommended. Ramazzini wrote also de Principum Valetudine Tuenda, a treatise 

 which contains observations on regimen and diet ; concerning both which he published some further 

 remarks in his annotations upon Coniaro's Discourse ou the Advantages of Temperance. He was 

 strongly prejudiced against tlie Peruvian bark, condemning its employment for the cute of fevers, in 

 a tract De Abusu Chiiiai Chinae. Besides the works already enumerated, and that above-noticed, 

 De Font. Mutinens., he wrote several Latin orations and other treatises on medical subjects, for 

 which we refer to his Opera Omnia, printed at JvOnduu in 17 lb. 



