in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 77 



tive corrosive was formed, while the Lucilian vescus was a com- 

 pound of vae and esca, and must originally have differed in ortho- 

 graphy and pronunciation from the other. 



Ve-sbius # , adjective vesbinus, an ancient name for the moun- 

 tain now called Vesuvius (Monte di Somma), parum extinctus, 

 scarcely extinguished. Raoul Rochette, the laborious historian 

 of the Grecian colonies, assigns the foundation of the Italian 

 Cumas to the twelfth century before Christ. This may be doubt- 

 ed; but most assuredly the Greek settlements on the shores of the 

 Bay of Naples cannot be referred to a late era. The Chalcidian 

 colony of Cumas soon spread along the coast, and Dicaearchia (af- 

 terwards Puteoli), Parthenope, Palaaopolis, Neapolis, Pompeii, 

 Herculaneum, and other names of pure Greek origin, attest the 

 extent of their prosperity. These colonies assigned to the modern 

 Ischia the name of Inarime, because Homer had mentioned that 

 the " couch of Typhoeus" was eu> Agiftoirf; and the modern Procida 

 they called YI^o^vtu, the " poured forth." Hence, we may infer 

 that the former was an active volcano when the Greeks arrived on 

 this coast, and that the latter emerged from the sea during their 

 residence on these shores. Hence also the name " Phlegraei 

 Campi" applied to the district between Puteoli and Neapolis. 

 It is consequently by no means improbable that the same Greeks 

 bestowed an appropriate name on that mountain, which looked 



* xpiwvpi, <r/ii<rii> (root o-/3sfti), English, quench (provincial squench). When the 

 Greeks threw the qu out of their alphabet, they replaced it in general, although 

 not in all cases, by it or /3. Replace the qu, and the identity of e-psvwpu with the 

 English quench or squench becomes immediately visible. I am preparing an essay 

 upon that wonderful reform of the Greek alphabet, by which they threw out all 

 guttural and drawling sounds, and replaced them by the long vowels and double 

 consonants. I shall submit the leading facts in a paper to the Royal Society, be- 

 fore I publish the work. 



■f- E«» Ag«jite»s oh <p°i<ri Tufpweoj tpfuvcu ivw;. This is the only allusion in the Homeric 

 writings to volcanic action. 



