1855.] 



THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.— UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



293 



Tlie Elruptiou of Vcsiiviiis. 



Prof. Palmieri, of the Observatory of Naples, lias made a valuable 

 Report on the Eruption. It appears that the needles of the apparatus 

 of Lamont, vfhich had been slightly affected on the 29th of April, were 

 greatly agitated on the .30th ; and on the following day the eruption 

 broke out. No fewer than ten craters opened in the course of a few 

 hours, followed by many smaller ones, all throwing out lava and heated 

 stones, accompanied by subterranean thunders and ruddy masses of 

 smolse. These streams, descending into the plain, called the "Atrio 

 del Cavallo," formed there a sea of fire, whose shores were on either 

 side the Mountain of Somma and the lava of 18.50. The materials 

 which formed this sea, swelling from moment to moment, at length 

 poured into the " Fosso della Vetrana," forming a wonderful cascade. 

 The enormous quantity of lava, ever increasing, filled up the valley at 

 the back of the Hermitage ; and pouringinto the " Fosso del Favaone," 

 formed another cascade, and rolled down in the direction of several 

 townships in the valley. Early in the progress of the eruption, the 

 lava was 100 palms in depth ; and it was considered that if another 

 such an accumulation took place, which certainly has now happened, 

 the Hermitage and the Observatory would be in danger. In fact, they 

 have been vacated, and the inscruments removed. The precise num- 

 ber of craters it will be impossible to determine till all is tranquil. 

 The same may be said of the materials ejected ; though we have 

 observed chloride of iron, gaseous matter destructive to life, and 

 muriatic acid gas. 



The magnetic apparatus of Lamont was used by Prof Palmieri on 

 the occasion, of the earthquake of Melfi ; and the results were such as 

 to induce him to think that it would not be mute, as the event has 

 proved, on the occasion of an eruption of a volcano. Anticipating, as 

 it had done, such a catastrophe by several days, it is one of the most 

 beautiful and convincing proofs of the practicalapplicability of science 

 to the service of human beings that modern days has furnished us 

 with. How many lives might have been saved, — how many may yet 

 be saved by the needles of Lamont ! 



Passing from magnetism to electricity. Prof. Palmieri says, that on 

 the first day of the eruption observations were impossible ; but on the 

 clouds clearing otf, he ascertained that there was a great tension of 

 positive electricity, which increased considerably on the fall of some 

 ashes on the evening of (he 2nd inst. In general, the electricity was 

 always stronger when the wind blew towards the Observatory. It 

 manifested itself very vigorously to the moveable conductor, not 

 always to the fixed conductor ; " and during the fall of the ashes," he 

 says, " I verified a curious fact, which I have observed during the fall 

 of rain, also, that whilst with the moveable conductor we had positive 

 electricity, with the fixed conductor a faint, negative electricity was 

 observed." During the course of the greater quantity of lava in the 

 " Fosso della Vetrana," on the north of the Observatory, the thei-mo- 

 meter stood 8° higher than on the opposite side of the building. 



The lava, after falling into the Fosso del Favaone, progressed from 

 that point as from the apex of an angle, in two directions, — one being 

 down on the townships Cercola, St. Sebastiano, and Massa di Somma; 

 the other, at a later period, in the direction of St. Giorgio a Cremano, 

 and St. Jovio, close to Portici. The first branch being the earliest in 

 order of time, was, when I saw it, 3,850 palms from Cercola, on the 

 next day it advanced 500 plams more, and there it has remained 

 almost stationary ; whilst during the last ten days the mountain has 

 been pouring down its greatest fury by the other branch towards St. 

 .Jovio. The bi'anch in the direction of Cercola was pent within the 

 deep blanks of a wide bed, and was flowing down, not like a fluid, 

 which is the ordinary motion of it, but like a mountain of coke, or at 

 times like highly gaseous coal. It split, and crackled, and sparkled, 

 and smoked and flamed up, and ever moved on in one vast comjiact 

 body. Pieces detaching themselves rolled down, leaving behind a 

 fierce glare ; and as every mass fell down with the noise of thunder, or 

 rolled sideways from the upper surface into the gardens and vineyard 

 yards, the trees flamed up, and the crowds uttered shouts of admiration 

 and regret. 



Following the course of the stream, or rather tracing it back to its 

 source, we walked by the side of that huge leviathan, through highly- 

 cultivated ground, now trodden under the feet of multitudes, until wo 

 arrived at the edge of a precipice, whence we looked into the boiling 

 flood, fed by the cascade of lava, which was pouring down from above. 

 Full 1,000 feet fell that glowing, flaming Is'iagara, in one unbroken 

 sheet, over the precipice at the back of the Hermitage and the Obser- 

 vatory. There were times when projections in the face of the lava 

 seemed to impede its course, or when the adhesive character of it ap- 



peared to bind it up in a temporary rigidity ; then, behind those pro- 

 jections, accumulated tons upon tons of material. It was a moment of 

 breathless expectation : — all eyes were fixed upon that one blackened 

 spot. There was a slight movement: — one heard a click; a few 

 ashes and stones fell down like avant-covrriers, and down went a 

 mountain of solid fire into the boiling, smoking abyss, with the noise 

 of thunder. The heat and the glare of light were at such times almost 

 insufiFerable. The branch on the right, which has since flowed do-wn 

 to St. Jovio, in the direction of Portici, was there only an infant rivulet, 

 stealing on its insidious course through a wood of chesnut-trecs and 

 •wrapping them all in flame. Alas ! how much injury has it since 

 occasioned, — how many trees teeming with the promise ol fruit and 

 the grape has it laid low, — how much land has it covered with tons 

 and tons of scoria;, whereon nothing more will grow for a century but 

 the hardy cactus. In some places a hundred, in others two or three 

 hundred, and in one pli:cea thousand feet in width, it rises to the height 

 of one or two hundred feet, and even more, and has progressed eight or 

 nine miles in the face of five or six flourishing and populous villages in the 

 plain. From St. Jovio the summer residents have fled, and taken their 

 furniture with them. At Cercola and Massa, at the termination of the 

 other branch, a bridge has been cut away so as not to impede the free 

 course of the lava : several houses have been removed for the same 

 reason, and several have been either swept entirely away or half sur- 

 rounded. In this state things remained till Sunday last; a kind of 

 .armistice had been established between the mountain, on the one 

 hand, — and the Saints, Ferdinand the Second, the bones of St. Rocco, 

 and the cardinal, on the other. On Sunday last, however, .above all 

 other days, the mountain broke the armistice, and the lava has been 

 galloping, not flowing, down ever since. As it flows, however, over 

 the hardened lava of last week, the danger is not imminent , but if it 

 continues, woe to Cercola and Massa. In the St. Jovio direction it 

 does not flow. Again the interest is reviving ; Vesuvius presents a 

 more magnificent spectacle than ever, and crowds still throng the best 

 points of view at night, or run down to the mountain. — Athenocum. 



TJniveusitt College, Loxdox. — The Council have received notice 

 of the resignation b3' Mr. Graham of the Professorship of Chemistry, 

 in consequence of his having received the appointment of Master of 

 the Mint. The resignation was accepted, with regret at the loss to 

 the college of Mr. Graham's valuable services. At the same session 

 announcement was made of the following additions to the property of 

 the college: — The Parliamentary library of the late Joseph Hume Esq., 

 bequeathed by him to the college ; the collection of fossils, presented 

 to the college by the late G. B. Greenough, Esq., with a presentation 

 copy of Mr. Greenough's Physical and Geological map of India ; and 

 the portrait of Harvey, by Mirevelt, a chef d'ceuvre, bequeathed to the 

 college by the late George Field, Esq., of Isleworth. Proceedings of 

 a former session were confirmed, as follows: — The appointment of 

 Professor Jenner to be physician to the hospital, instead of assistant- 

 physician ; of Dr. Thomas Snow Beck and Dr. John Russell Reynolds 

 to be substitutes, each for six months, for Dr. Jenner. as assistant- 

 physici.au to the hospital for the year during which Dr. Jenner is 

 charged with the duties of Dr. Parkes as physician to the hospital, and 

 special Professor of Clinical Medicine ; the appointment of John 

 Dowson, Esq., to be Professor of Hindostanee, with liberty to teach 

 Telugu, until further arrangements shall be made. 'J he Professorship 

 of Bengalee, ofl'ered to William Adam, Esq., having been declined by 

 him, proceedings for procuring instruction in that language, as well 

 as in Tamyl and other Indian languages, were postponed. Dr. Hoft- 

 man. Chemist to the JIuseum of Practical Geology, has been appointed 

 to the office of Assayer to the Mint, left vacant by the elevation of 

 Professor Graham. 



To Corrcspoiidcuts. 



We beg to remind those of our correspondents who have kindly for- 

 warded for publication various communications relating to public or 

 private interests, that it is not desirable that the Canadian Journal 

 should be made the medium of bringing into notice any facts or fancies 

 which may give rise to unprofitable discussion, or to which the writer 

 would object, from personal considerations, to subscribe his name. 

 —Ed. 



