the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 77 
From the month of January to the month of May last, the 
atmosphere was generally calm, and we had continued dry 
weather. In the month of May we had a little rain, but the 
weather was unusually sultry. For some days preceding the 
eruption, the Duke della Torre, a learned and ingenious 
nobleman of this country, and who has published two letters 
upon the subject of the late eruption, observed by his electro- 
meters that the atmosphere was charged in excess with the 
electric fluid, and continued so for several days during the 
eruption : there are many other curious observations in the 
duke's account of the late eruption. 
About 11 o'clock at night of the 12th of June, at Naples we 
were all sensible of a violent shock of an earthquake ; the un- 
dulatory motion was evidently from east to west, and appeared 
to me to have lasted near half a minute. The sky, which had 
been quite clear, was soon after covered with black clouds. 
The inhabitants of the towns and villages, which are very nu- 
merous at the foot of Vesuvius, felt this earthquake still more 
sensibly, and say, that the shock at first was from the bottom 
upwards, after which followed the undulation from east to 
west. This earthquake extended all over the Campagna Fe- 
lice ; and their Sicilian Majesties were pleased to tell me, that 
the royal palace at Caserta, which is 15 miles from this city, 
and one of the most magnificent and solid buildings in Europe 
(the walls being 18 feet thick), was shook in such a manner as 
to cause great alarm, and that all the chamber bells rang. It 
was likewise much felt at Beneventum, about 30 miles from 
Naples ; and at Ariano in Puglia, which is at a much greater 
distance ; both these towns have been often afflicted with 
earthquakes. 
