248 
DR. DAVY’S ACCOUNT OF A NEW VOLCANO 
I have stated already, that whilst I was at the volcano, no indications ap¬ 
peared of the disengagement of any inflammable gas, and not even of any acid 
gas or vapour. I have conversed with many gentlemen on whose accuracy of 
observation I could place dependence, and their experience agreed with mine, 
excepting that one or two of them perceived distinctly acid fumes, which, from 
the description given of their effects when respired, it may be inferred were of 
sulphureous acid. Probably a little sulphuretted hydrogen also was evolved ; 
but it must have been in extremely minute quantity, otherwise it could not 
have escaped notice. In the gas I examined, the trace of it was so slight that 
it was not discoverable by means of freshly precipitated oxide of lead ; a few 
particles of it agitated with the gas, were not in the slightest degree dis¬ 
coloured. 
In an account of the volcano, published in the Malta Gazette of the 25th 
August, it is stated that carburetted hydrogen was evolved from it, and that 
coal deprived of bitumen occurred amongst the ashes and scorise. As the writer 
does not appear to have ascertained either of these points in the only way in 
which they could be determined in a satisfactory manner, namely by experi¬ 
ment, I am under the necessity of supposing that his statement in these par¬ 
ticulars is not correct, and that the appearances to which he trusted were fal¬ 
lacious. 
The results of my latter inquiries, it will be perceived, like those which pre¬ 
ceded them, are entirely negative ; and they are very similar to those which 
my brother, the late Sir Humphry Davy, obtained at Vesuvius, which he has 
described in a paper, “ On the Phenomena of Volcanos,” published in the 
Philosophical Transactions for 1828; and reasoning on them in relation to 
the theory of volcanos in general, they appear very favourable to that hypo¬ 
thesis of volcanic action to which he gave the preference, both in the paper 
just alluded to, and still more decidedly in his posthumous work, “ Consola¬ 
tions in Travelnamely, the simple hypothesis of an ignited nucleus of fused 
matter, occasionally forced through the cooled crust of the earth by the ex¬ 
pansive power of steam and gas. In the present instance, all the phenomena 
and circumstances of the volcano happily accord with this view. The situa¬ 
tion of the eruption, many miles distant from the nearest shore, seems to be 
incompatible with its having any connexion with the atmosphere; and this 
