19 ^ Scientific InteWigence. 
On the 18th a thick smoke was discharged. On the 19th show- 
ers of cinders and fragments of inflamed lava were thrown out. 
On the ^Oth the lava was seen boiling in the crater, and threat- 
ening to burst over its sides ; and on the 21st the lava forced its 
way into the southern part of the mountain, by a new opening, 
from which it flowed abundantly, at the rate of six feet per mi- 
nute towards the hermitage of St Salvador. On the 24th, the 
violence of the eruption was redoubled, and in the evening Vesu- 
vius presented to the inhabitants of Naples the superb spectacle 
of a river of fire, rolling amidst clouds of smoke along the flanks 
of the mountain. As the lava flowed through lands already 
burned, and entirely desert, no injury has yet been done by this 
eruption. 
51. Encroachment of the Sea on the Coast of America. — At 
Cape May, where the River Delaware falls into the Atlantic, 
the following curious observations are inscribed on the wall of a 
house : 
Distance of the House from the Sea. 
Feet. 
Feet. 
Feet. 
1804, 
334 
1809, 
267 
1817, 
214 
1806, 
324 
1811, 
259 
1818, 
204 
1807, 
294 
1812, 
254 
1819, 
188 
1808, 
273 
1816, 
225 
1810, 
180 
New Monthly Mag, 
52. Memoirs of the Physical and Natural History Society of 
Geneva. — The Physical and Natural History Society of Geneva 
was founded in 1790, by a number of those distinguished indivi- 
duals at Geneva who devoted themselves to the pursuits of science. 
The principal papers read at their meetings, found a place in the 
Philosophical Transactions, in the Memoirs of the Institute, or in 
those of the Academies of Berlin and Turin ; while those which 
were of a less elaborate nature were transmitted to the popular 
scientific journals of the day. In consequence, however, of the 
deliverance of Geneva from a foreign yoke, all the public institu- 
tions received a vigorous impulse ; and the Physical Society, 
strengthened with an accession of members, as well as of zeal, 
found itself in a situation to print its own Memoirs. They have 
accordingly published the First Part of the First Volume, and 
we understand that the Second Part is nearly ready for publica- 
tion. 
