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LXXXII. Obfervations upon Father Kircher’j 
Opinion concerning the burning of the Fleet 
of Marcellus by Archimedes. By James 
Parfons, M. D. F. R. S. 
Read June 13TT THEN Marcellus befieg’d the tity 
l/54 ‘ Vt °f Syracufe, it is well known,, 
by the authority of thofe great hiftorians Livy, Po- 
lybius, and Plutarch, that the incomparable fkill and 
devices of Archimedes were the only obrtacles to his 
fucceeding in his enterprize, much fooner than he 
did. Thefe authors tell us of his having invented 
machines, with which he threw hones of an enor- 
mous weight, into the drips of the befieger; with 
fhowers of darts, flints, pieces of timber, and fuch 
like ; and had fo prepar'd his engines, as to be pro- 
per for any diftance the veflels might lie at, in the har- 
bour. And they are minute in their defcriptions of 
fome of them ; particularly, in his having deftroy’d 
the fambuca y a machine contriv’d by Marcellus. Nor 
does it appear that the forces, inverting the city by 
land, far’d any better than thofe by water ; for it is 
faid he gall’d them in all quarters. And tho' the 
machines, as defcrib’d by thefe great authors, were 
wonders, furpafling the comprehenfions of the gene- 
rality of mankind, yet I believe their accounts have 
credit with the candid part of the learned, who de- 
light in hirtcry and antiquities. 
But what was mort difcredited, was Archimedes’s 
fetting fire to the fhips, by a burning fpeculum. 
Indeed fo diftinguirti’d a genius, if he could not de- 
ftrcy 
