VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 707 



XCI. On the Earthquakes felt at lurin, Dec. Q, 1755, and March8, 1756. Bij 

 Dr. Fital. Dovuti, Prof, of Botany at Turin. From the Italian, p. 6l2. 



The cause of earthquakes is unknown to me. The ancients have observed, 

 that earthquakes were accompanied witli some particular meteor, and some re- 

 markable alteration in the air. Such alterations have been observed at the time 

 of the late earthquakes. Who knows, whether an electrical force be not ca- 

 pable of moving more than a quarter of our globe ? I have communicated 

 this notion to father Beccaria, and I found him almost entirely convinced of it. 



On the 9th of December, at half an hour after 2 in the afternoon, a shock 

 of an earthquake was felt here at Turin ; but not a considerable one, so that a 

 great number of persons did not perceive it. For my own part I felt it very 

 sensibly, being then in the Universitj-pulpit raised very high. The chair, on 

 which I sat, was thrown by the shock from one side of the pulpit to the other, 

 in the direction of south to north. This shock lasted between 4 and 6 seconds. 

 Some minutes after came another shock, but it was extremely slight. Its di- 

 rection was likewise from south to north. I have been informed from Milan, 

 that about the same hour, and on the same day, a shock of an earthquake had 

 been felt. The waters did not rise, and yet a good deal of motion was observed 

 in those of the lakes. For 3 days the waters rose from underground in the lower 

 apartments of the houses situated near the east gate. The springs that water 

 the lands in the country, became more copious. 



On the 28th of December at 6 o'clock, according to the Italian way of reck- 

 oning, a slight earthquake was felt at Padua. 



On the 8th of March, at half after 1 1 in the morning, in the French way of reck- 

 oning, I felt 2 shocks directed from above downwards, but they were very slight. 



CII. Of a Continued Succession of Earthquakes at Brigue in Calais. Written by 

 the Rector of the College of Jesuits at Brigue. From the Latin, p. 6l6. 



Valais, and especially Brigue, have almost every 1 years felt earthquakes, but 

 never any so considerable as in 1735. For in that year, on the 1st of No- 

 vember, which was so fatal to Portugal, we felt Brigue several times shaken, 

 and particularly on that very day. And from that time, especially in the night, 

 the walls were perceived by many persons to tremble ; whence they justly ap- 

 prehended still greater shocks of an earthquake. On the gth of December, 

 about 2 in the afternoon, the earth at first made a great noise, and seemed, as it 

 were, to give a signal for immediately retiring. This was, not long after, fol- 

 lowed by repeated, but sliglit motions. At a quarter after 2, the earth was again 

 shaken, and a much louder noise heard : at last, a little before half an hour 

 after 2, all Valais seemed on the point of destruction ; for the earth began not 

 only to tremble, but to send forth a horrible noise, and to shake all the buildings 

 with so violent a motion in the space of 2 pater nosters, that the houses inclined 



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