303 
ST. DUN &T AN*; 
he Jjeli^aded, a pious lady of Naples caught about oue oucce of 
his blood, which, tradition says, has been carefully preserved in lat 
bp^itle ever since, without ever having lost a single grain of Its weight; 
Tbis, of itself, were it demonstrable, might be considered as a greater 
^iracle than the circumstance on which the Neapolitans lay the 
\ybdio stress, viz. that the blood, which has congealed, and acquired a 
solid form by age, is no sooner brought near the head of the sainty 
than> as a mark of veneration, it liquefies. This experiment is made 
fbrice a year, and is esteemed by the Neapolitans as a miracle of the 
first magnitude. The substance in the bottle, which is exhibited for the 
blood of the saint, is supposed to be something naturally solid, but 
which melts with a small degree of heat. When first brought out of 
tile cold chapel, it is in its solid state ; but when brought before the 
saint by the priest, and rubbed between his warm hands, and breathed 
upon for some time, it melts ; and this is the whole m3stery. The 
head and blood of the saint are kept in a kind of press, with folding 
doors of silver, in the chapel of St. Januarius, belonging to the cathe*- 
dr^l church. The real head is probably not so fresh and well pre^ 
served as the blood ; on that account it is not exposed to the eyes^ 
of the public, but is enclosed in a large silver bust, gilt and enriched- 
with jewels of high value. This being what is visible to the peopIe^A 
their ideas of the saint’s features and complexion are taken entirely 
from the bust. The blood is kept in a small repository by itselfi 
The chemical process for performing this pretended miracle is by 
muriatic acid. Though this acid has no action on gold in its metal- 
lic state, yet if the metal is previously attenuated or reduced to a 
daljc, eitlier by precipitation from aqua regia, or by calcination in 
mixture with calcinable metals, this acid will perfectly dissolve it, 
and keep it in solution. This solution is of a yellow colour,- gives a 
purple stain to the skin, bones, and other solid parts of animals, and 
strikes a red colour with tin. In distillation, the nitrous acid arises 
and the muriatic acid remains, combined with the gold, in a blood-red 
mass, soluble in spirit of wine. If towards the end of the distillation 
the fire is hastily raised, part of the gold distils in a high salfion- 
cbloured liquor, and part sublimes into the neck of the retort, in^ 
clusters of long slender crystals of a deep red colour, fusible in a 
small heat, deliquating in the air, and easily soluble in w'ater. By 
repetitions of this process, the whole of the gold may be elevated, ex- 
ceptia small quantity of white powder, whose nature is unknown. This 
red sublimate of gold being easily fusible by the heat of one’s hand, 
exhibited by the priest for St. Januarius’s blood. — ^The French are 
saidj in their first invasion of Naples, during the revolutionary furor, 
ta have thrown the bottle into the bay ; but it found its way ^gain 
to :|he priests, and the French no longer disputed the reality of the ^ 
miracle, because they derived advantage from the continuance bf tHe'^' 
popular delusion. 
St. Dunstan., 
This was a famous archbishop of Canterbury, of whom the mpnkisli ?^ 
historians giv? us the following acconnt. He was descended from a? 
