NATURE 



{May 2, 1872 



not say that no one ever made money by pure science ; 

 some men have done so, as is well known, by means such 

 as telegraphic inventions and chemical processes applied 

 to the arts ; but even these, and they arc very few, have 

 not become the millionaires, of whom not a small number 

 are to be found amongst engineers and manufacturers. 

 Putting aside these rare exceptions, science docs not bring 

 wealth to its cultivators. For instance, who ever made 

 money by astronomy ? What did the discovery of 

 Neptune, the highest scientific achievement of this age, 

 bring to Professor Adams but tardy fame ? Are investi- 

 gations of the properties of light, sound, gravity, mag- 

 netism, profitable pursuits ? Was the inventor of a new 

 calculus ever made rich thereby ? 



Shall we contend, therefore, that Government should 

 supply the shortcomings of a scientific career, and place 

 those who adopt it on a par pecuniarily with successful 

 engineers ? By no means. We must look a little deeper 

 for the reason why State should aid Science. We shall 

 find, if we examine the whole domain of Science, that 

 there are extensive tracts which require for their vigorous 

 cultivation very costly appliances and a long expenditure 

 of time. Poor men cannot afford the one at all, and cannot 

 live if they devote themselves to the other without remune- 

 ration. Hence, if such branchesof sciencedo notreceiveaid 

 from without, they must languish, if not be entirely ne- 

 glected. But this cannot happen without depriving the 

 community of some addition to its material advantages 

 which it might otherwise possess. It is notorious, not, 

 perhaps, to all the writers of the Times, but to those con- 

 versant with the state of science in England, that this 

 evil is with us in full operation with constantly increasing 

 force. Rich men do, it is true, sometimes devote them- 

 selves to science. But no individual can do more than 

 labour during his lifetime ; and what is chiefly wanted 

 now, in several of the most important lines of investiga- 

 tions, is uninterrupted continuity during immense periods 

 of time. Will our friends, the Engineers, apply some of 

 that " lavish liberality and unbounded enterprise," of 

 which we have heard so much, in this direction ? We 

 suppose not. Whatever may have been the love of know- 

 ledge for its own sake which distinguished the first foun- 

 ders of the profession, the modern "leading engineer" 

 knows better than to put his money and time into so un- 

 profitable a business. 



England is at this moment behind every other civilised 

 nation in the means afforded for the cultivation of those 

 branches of science which do not yield immediate profit. 

 But there are men, not connected with either the Govern- 

 ment, the Times, or the Civil Engineer Institute, who are 

 alive to the peril of prolonging this neglect, and who will 

 not rest until they have opened the eyes of their country- 

 men to its imminence and magnitude, at present beyond 

 the ken of their governors and their teachers. When 

 they have attained their object, the Times will profter 

 them its aid. 



T 



THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS 

 HE great eruption of Mount Vesuvius, with the tele- 



graphic accounts of which the readers of the daily 

 papers have been familiar for the past week, is undoubtedly 

 one of the most considerable of modern times. Whether 



the worst is yet over seems still uncertain while we are 

 writing ; but even if this be the case, the mass of molten 

 lava ejected, and the amount of damage done, will appear 

 to bear comparison with those of almost any recent erup- 

 tion. One account speaks of it as the grandest eruption 

 since 1631. 



The telegraphic accounts at present received are 

 necessarily vague, and to a certain extent conflicting, 

 and of course it is at present impossible to do more than 

 chronicle. Scientific results must follow afterwards. 



The correspondent of the Daily Neius says, under date 

 of Sunday afternoon : — " I havejust returned from visiting 

 the spot where the victims of the eruption perished. 

 Streams of lava, thirty metres wide and nearly ten metres 

 in height, were still fiery and smoking. The detonations 

 continue as before. Part of San Sebastiano is entirely 

 destroyed, with everything near. King Victor Emmanuel 

 and Signer Lanza were on the spot distributing money to 

 the sufferers. All the people fled at the time, but some 

 were beginning to return with their goods. The shower 

 of cinders had ceased, the sky was blue, and Mount 

 Vesuvius, with a colossal column of smoke above it, had 

 a grandly imposing appearance." 



San Sebastiano is a village on the north-western slope of 

 Vesuvius, almost exactly in the direction of Naples. None 

 of the earlier eruptions extended in this direction, but a 

 stream of lava flowed almost close to the village in one of 

 the early eruptions of this century. The lava is here spoken 

 of as being sixteen feet deep in places, and in other de- 

 spatches San Sebastiano and the neighbouring village of 

 Masso di Somma are spoken of as having been nearly 

 destroyed. This stream of lava is described as 

 having several times changed its direction, and it is 

 probably a branch of the same which has threatened 

 Portici and Persina (no doubt Resina, almost close to 

 Herculaneum) near the sea-coast, and caused the abandon- 

 ment of these villages. 



It must be a different stream which has partially or 

 entirely destroyed Torre del Greco, one of the beautiful 

 villages which lie on the shores of the Bay of Naples, in 

 a south-westerly direction from the centre of the mountain. 

 This village, or its immediate neighbourhood, has been 

 overwhelmed several times within the last two centuries. 

 The statement that " the lava now reaches from Torre del 

 Greco to within five kilometres of the eastern coast, and 

 threatens several other communes, the inhabitants of 

 which have, in consequence, fled from their homes," is 

 quite unintelligible. 



The effect of the eruption at Naples up to Monday 

 night is described as follows : — " Cinders fell all last night, 

 and they still continue to fall at this moment as I send off 

 the present despatch. A thin rain is also falling. Near 

 Cercola the shower of scoriae has compelled the soldiers 

 to build huts in which they may obtain shelter. The 

 church of San Giordano at Cercola has been destroyed. 

 A number of people have been surrounded by the lava 

 close to San Sebastiano. At Ottoiano a heavy shower of 

 enormous blocks of lava has commenced. The railway is 

 crowded with foreigners and Neapolitans hurrying away 

 from N.aples. A fresh ertiption is feared, as loud explo- 

 sions were heard last night even in this city." 



The fall of cinders, even at Naples, is spoken of as so 

 heavy that the sky seemed hidden by them,'and they fell 



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