Jrdy 25, 1872] 



NATURE 



24; 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



ON Saturday last a meeting was held at the rooms of 

 the Society of Arts, of scientific men and others 

 interested in the promotion of tcclmical education among 

 the working classes, and especially among the skilled 

 artisans of this country. Thechair was taken by H.R.H. 

 Prince Arthur, who showed in the remarks which he ad- 

 dressed to the meeting an admirable appreciation of the 

 extreme value of the subject to the future prosperity of 

 the country. After the Secretary of the Society of Arts 

 had explained the proposal of Captain Donnelly that 

 the Society should establish technological examinations 

 for the purpose of testing the practical knowledge and 

 skill required in the application of the scientific prin- 

 ciples involved in each art and manufacture, H.R.H. 

 said : — 



"The Society of Arts are endeavouring to encourage 

 among those who are practically employecl in various in- 

 dustries the study of art, and an accurate knowledge of 

 its application in each brancli of manufacture. The 

 Society will not, however, attempt to teach the practice of 

 those arts. Their object is rather to lay a sound founda- 

 tion of all the principles on which those practices may be 

 carried out to the best advantage. The Society wish and 

 desire to give certificates, prizes, and scholarships to those 

 who show that to practical skill as workmen they have 

 added an accurate knowledge of natural principles in those 

 matters. I am certain the necessity and advantage of 

 combining scientific principles with practice will be seen 

 by all. I only wonder that we are but just beginning to 

 undertake this task. The machinery for these technolo- 

 gical examinations already exists, and, in fact, the skeleton 

 of industrial universities is ready to our hands. What we 

 now require is funds to clothe it with and give it life, and 

 to enable it to carry out its work— that is, to obtain sufli- 

 cient prizes to encourage and reward the deserving youth 

 of this country. If others would only do what S'ir Joseph 

 Whitworth has done by his noble endowment for mechani- 

 cal engineering, we might soon hope to see our most 

 sanguine expectations realised." 



Little by little the country is gradually waking up to 

 understanding the principles on which alone its future 

 greatness as a manufacturing nation can rest. Many will 

 probably echo H.R.H.'s wonder that "we are but just 

 beginning to undertake this task." 



VOLCANOES OF CENTRAL FRANCE 



THE conduct of the war against the Goths having 

 brought Procopius into Campania, he is thus led to 

 give an account of Vesuvius. In the text before me the 

 mountain is called I'ebios, and asli is said to have fallen 

 at Byzantium ; but undoubtedly Vesuvius is meant, and 

 there seem to be good reasons for suspecting that " By- 

 zantium " should be " Benevcntum." Both Besuios 

 (= Vesuios) and Benevcntuiii could be so written as 

 easily to be mistaken for the names now in the text. I 

 cannot indeed pretend to say when, I must leive that to 

 the critics. 



Procopius, " De Bello Gothico," 1. ii. c. 4 : "At that time 

 Mount Vesuvius was roaring, but there was no eruption ; 

 however, in consequence of the roaring, an eruption was 

 confidently expected and the surrounding population were 

 in great fear. This mountain is about seventy stadii from 

 Naples, bearing northwards from that place {t^tpuiiu - 

 vov aiiTfi Trpif BnppS.v dixiimi), [The real bearing is 

 about 10^ S. of E. Is he confounding Naples with 

 Stabia;, where Pliny died ?]* It is naturally escarped, — 



* It has occurred to me to suggest wp5: Bap^ov ipnov for wpi.- boap^v ivtfiw 

 This wouhl not be an unnatural reference in the secretary of a Byzantine 

 general, if the Greek emperors already used that port for miUt.ary purposes. 



wide-spreading below, but the top steep and very rugged ; 

 and on the summit of Vesuvius, in the centre, there is a 

 cavern, which appears to be remarkably deep, and it would 

 seem as if it extended quite to the extremities {eirxara) of 

 the mountain ; and any one who is bold enough to look 

 down may see fire in it. It is of no consequence to the in- 

 habitants when no flame is seen above it ; but when the 

 mountain sends forth an explosive roaring it generally 

 happens that not long afterwards a vast quantity of dust 

 is thrown up, and if this destructive shower meets a 

 traveller on the road he can by no means escape with his 

 life ; and if it descends on houses, they fall, crushed down 

 by the mass of ash ; and if a violent wind happens to be 

 blowing, the ash is carried to a great height, out of people's 

 sight, and is transported wherever the wind may carry it, 

 and it may fall in some country at a very great distance. 

 And they say that formerly, when it fell in Byzantium 

 [gu. Bcneventum ?], the people there were so alarmed that 

 they have made it a rule {(yvwa-av) in general assembly 

 from that day to this to propitiate the deity by yearly 

 supplications (Xirnis). At another time (they say) it 

 fell in Tripolis in Lybia. And they say that this roar- 

 ing first (.'') took place a hundred or more years ago, 

 and that latterly it occurred much more frequently, 

 but with decreasing violence.* They say, too, that when 

 Vesuvius happens to eject this dust, the country where it 

 falls is sure to produce abundant crops. On this mountain 

 especially, beyond all others, the air is very light, and 

 highly conducive to health, and time out of mind medical 

 men have unhesitatingly sent thither their consumptive 

 patients. Such, in the main, are the circumstances in 

 connection with Vesuvius." 



Vesuvius lies about 40° 47' N. by 14° 26' E., Byzantium 

 about 41'^ N. by 28° 59' E. ; so a difference of 14' 33' of 

 longitude on the parallel of 41'', or, by a rough estimate, a 

 distance of 750 miles. Is it possible that ashes ever fell 

 at that distance in such cjuantities as to terrify the people, 

 and drive them to institute Rogations .'' Is it likely that a 

 professional historiographer, a resident in the very town 

 where the alarm is said to have occurred, and where the 

 Rogations had been instituted and constantly observed, 

 could have first heard of these facts in Italy and from 

 Italians? If this is scarcely credible, it suggests that we 

 should read Beneventum. It is about thirty miles from 

 the mountain — a distance not so great but that such events 

 might have occurred there. He who wishes to have a 

 vivid picture of them, let him read Pliny's second letter to 

 Tacitus (vi. 20) describing what, happened to himself at 

 Misenum. The erroneous reading is somewhat counte- 

 nanced by the fact that the statement seems intended to 

 be an instance of great distance ; whereas probably the 

 heavy fall of ash and the consequent Rogations alone 

 caused Beneventum to be mentioned, and Tripolis was the 

 only case of distance. 



While, therefore, the geologists arc searching for ash 

 at Vienne, the archa;ologists might oblige us by searching 

 the annals of the principal Sees round Vesuvius, especially 

 Beneventum. There were also Neapolis, Surrentum, 

 Salernum, and perhaps other Sees, which our bishop might 

 have held, but the scattered rays of light seem best to 

 converge on Beneventum. At a much later date it is 

 described as an Imperial vicariat ; did it bear any such 

 relation to the empire in the middle of the fifth century ? 

 Did it possess walls, a spacious forum, and a resident 

 nobility ? Could people have seen, or have fancied they 

 saw, deer taking refuge in the forum ? Is there any record 



* My translation of this passage is open to cricicism. I have even ventured 

 to read dTriT^vpitraVcrui. for dmaxvpiadf^evai, and 1 give an unusual sense to the 



word, by analogy to dn-OTrXowreuj, dTroMavSauiv, &7ro<ipat7ra\;tofiai &C. The COU- 



text .seems to me imperatively to demand it. The Latin translation ren- 

 ders the text, as it stands, thus : — "According to them it is now a hundred 

 years or more since the prior roaring occurred ; the memory of the other is 

 much more recent ; moreover they affirm that it cannot but be, that, &c." 

 Can SairaoK be translated by " more recent " ? and why such violent as- 

 severation about a simple agricultural fact ? The difference does not affect 

 our question: but it is of some importance in its bearing on the History of 

 Vesuvius. 



