n 
Couni de GioenPs Account of 
There is nothing new in volcano’s having thrown up fand 
and alfo ftones-f, by the violent expanfive force generated 
within them, which fand has been carried by the wind to 
diftant regions. 
But the colour and fubtilty of the matter occalioned doubts 
concerning its origin ; which increafed from the remarkable 
circumftance of the water in which it came incorporated J ; 
for which reafons fome other principle or origin was fuf- 
pecled. 
It became, therefore, neceffary by all means to afcertain the 
nature of this matter, in order to be convinced of its origin, 
and ol the effects it might produce. This could not be done 
without the help of a chemical analyfis. To do this then with 
certainty, I endeavoured to collect this rain from places where it 
was moil: probable no heterogeneous matter would be mixed with 
it. I therefore cliofe the plant called BraJJica Capitata , which 
having large and turncd-up leaves, they contained enough of 
this coloured water ; many of thefe 1 emptied into a veflel, 
and left the contents to fettle till the water became clear. 
This being feparated into another vefl'el, I tried it with 
vegetable alkaline liquors and mineral acids ; but could obferve 
no decompofition by either. I then evaporated the water in or- 
der to reunite the fubilances that might be in folution ; and 
* The authority of cassiod. prefixed to this account is ftrengthened by 
sf.heca, in his 2 lib. de d>uejl. Nat. 
Nit): a aiiquando multo igne alundavit , ingentcm vim arena urentis ejftidit , in-valutas cjl 
dies palvere, populofque fubita nox tcrruit. 
But without having recourfe to the numerous old accounts of this vol- 
cano, and of Vefuvius, we have, within thefe twenty years, feen many of thofe 
rains in Sicily originating in Etna ; and the lad, preceding the eruption of laft 
year, was compofed of little fragments of bituminous pumice (tone, or Jiumie. 
f The (tone, defcribed by pliny, which fell in Thrace, the (hower of (tones 
on mount Albano after the ruin of Alba, which i.ivy mentions, and many 
others of like nature, remarked by the ancients as miraculous rains, have 
been difcovered to be volcanic. As to Etna we have, in our days, feen new moun- 
tains formed by the {tones, or rather the lava; and as to the ancients, befides 
strabo and many others, the poet pindar writes, that aUqnando non tantum 
rivosigneos ejccit , fcdfaxa ignita. find, ap Brit. lib. V. c. 1+ p. 2. 
1 In many of the writers on Etna, (bowers of fand, or other productions, 
mixed with water, are not to be found. 
1 tou chiller 
o 
