Miscellanies. 199 
circumstance, and immediately pass their arms under the body to 
break its fall; it will also be well for one individual to hold a pillow 
under the head, for the same purpose. ‘The experiment appears to 
succeed best in a closed room, and if the inspirations and respirations 
are not uniform, it will fail. I first saw it tried about twenty years 
ago, but have never yet heard or seen any satisfactory explanation 
of it. 
I am not aware that it involves any principle adverse to the known 
laws of gravitation, but it certainly appears for a short time to act 
independently of them. If you deem it (this letter) worthy of a 
passing notice, I should be glad to see it—if otherwise, let it be de- 
posited in the Archives of the College of Laputa. 
I am Sir,—Respectfully yours 
James NicKa.ts, Jr. 
12. Vesuvius and Etna.—lIt appears from Galignani’s Messenger 
that there was a tremendous eruption of Vesuvius, towards the close 
of last August. 
Upwards of fifteen hundred houses, palaces, and other buildings, 
and twenty five hundred acres of cultivated land have been destroy- 
ed by the fires. ‘The eruption, which, from the drying up of the 
fountains, has been previously expected, surpassed every thing which 
history has transmitted to us. ‘The first explosion destroyed the 
great cone situated on the top of the mountam. The abundance of 
the inflamed matter produced flashes which darted through the moun- 
tain’s flank. A new crater burst open at the top of the great cone, 
and inundated the plain with torrents of lava. ‘The king and the 
ministers hastened to the seat of the catastrophe to console the un- 
fortunate victims. The village of St. Felix, where they first took 
repose had already been abandoned. ‘The lava soon poured down 
upon this place, and in the course of an hour, houses, palaces, and 
churches, were all destroyed. Four villages, some detached houses, 
country villages, beautiful groves and gardens, which, a few minutes 
before, presented a magnificent spectacle, now resembled a sea of 
fire. On the 3rd of September, nothing but stones and cinders were 
ejected, and every prospect existed of the eruption being soon at a 
close. The palace of the prince of Attayanua, and five hundred 
acres of his lands are utterly destroyed. The cinders fell, during 
an entire night over Naples, and if the lava had taken that direction, 
there would have been an end to that city.” —N. Y. Obs. Nov. 28, 
1834. 
