1800.] — 
lignity then called in queftion his upright- 
nefs in the adminiftration of the cabinet of 
Pavia; the whole of which was the fruit 
of his own labours; but the darts aimed 
at his honour, only made it fhine with new 
luftre. The integrity of SpaLLaNZANI 
appeared even more pure, after the juri- 
dical examination of the tribunals. But 
let us ftop here, SPALLANzAN! had the 
fortitude to forget this event which had torn 
his heart to pieces ; the greater part of his 
enemies acknowledged their miftake, ab- 
jured their hatred, and did not defpair of 
regaining his friendfhip. 
The cabinet of Pavia was always the 
object of SPALLaNzaN’s thoughts ; a- 
-midft the numerous rarities which he had 
placed there, he only faw thofe that were 
wanting. Struck with its deficiency in 
volcanic matters, which had neither feries 
nor order, and contequently excited little 
intereft, being a mute article with re{pect 
to inftruction, (although Italy was the 
theatre where the fires of volcanoes had 
for fo many ages exerciled their defolating 
powers); he took the refolution, with 
which his talents, his courage, and his zeal, 
infpired him. He was defirous to initruct 
his pupils, his nation, himfelf, concerning 
the phenomena fo ftriking, and yet fo little 
known, and to collect the documents of their 
hiftory in the places where they have always 
been the terror of thofe who furrounded 
them, and where they have been ulelefsly 
the fubject of the obfervations of the phi- 
Jofopher. He therefore prepared himielf 
for this great enterprize by deep ftudies. 
He fet out for Naples, in the fummer of 
1788, and afcended mount Vefuvius; he’ 
looked attentively into its crater, examined 
and made netes in his books, and embarked 
for the Lipari iflands. He diffected, as it 
were, the uninhabited volcanoes, with the 
exactnefs of a naturalift anatomizing a 
butterfly, and the intrepidity of a warrior 
defying the moit immiment dangers. | It 
was then that he had the boidnels, like our 
countryman Deluc, to walk over that ful- 
phurous cruft, cleft with chinks, trembling, 
fmoking, burning, and fometimes treacher- 
oufly coveringthe hearth of the volcano. He 
paficd into Sicily, where he climbed up 
to Etna, and coafted its immenfe crater. 
His curiofity not being exhaufted, he would 
collect around him, and have in his mind 
all the fingular phenomena that Sicily con- 
tained; he examined the ftones and the 
mountaiis, and difcovered many new ma- 
rine animals; he approached Scylla and 
_ Charybais, and in a boat croffed the frothy 
billows ot thole deadly rocks, celebrated 
for fo many thipwrecks, and fo often fung 
Life and Labours of Spallanzani. 
. 269 
by the poets ; but in the very midt of their 
frightful waves, he difcovered the caufe of 
their fury. It was thus, that at the age 
of 60, he picked up thofe numberlefs anec- 
dotes which fill his Voyages in the two> 
Sicilies ; and that he compared the de- 
fcription which Homer, Pindar, Virgil, 
Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo, have given 
of thefe ever famous places, with that 
which he made himfelf. In this manner 
he fhewed the connection of ancient lite- 
rature with natural hiftory, as Citizen 
Millin has done in his Mineralogy of 
Homer. 
We find in the Voyages of SPELLaNn- 
ZaNI a new volcanology; he therein 
teaches the way to meafure the intenfity 
of the fire.of volcanoes, to glance at the 
caufes, to touch almoft, in the analyfis 
which he makes of the lava, that parti- 
cular gas which refembling a powerful 
lever, tears from the bowels of the earth, 
and raifes up to the top of Etna, thofe tor- 
rents of {tone in fufion which it difgorges 5 
to furvey the nature of thofe pumice- 
ftones, which he has fince explained in his 
artificial pumice flones. But here let 
me ftop. I wifh to fpeak of the fires 
of Barigazzo and of various other places, 
fome of which burnt ftill unknown, but 
of which the caufe is afcertained by the 
carbonic hydrogene gas which enflames it. 
Let us not forget tomention, that he knew 
how to render thele fires ufeful in the 
making of lime. ~ He was greatly furprized 
when I intcrmed him, fome years after the 
publication of his work, that Kempfer 
in his Amanitates exotica, defcribed the 
fame fires, that he had feen at Beku in Per= 
fia,eand that they employed them in the 
fame manner. SPaLLANzaAN1 Concludes 
this charming work, with fome interefting 
inquiries into the nature of fwallows, their 
mild difpofitions, rapid flight, fuggefting 
that an advantage might be drawn from 
them in the way of aerial poft: their mi- 
grations determined by the temperature 
of the air, and the birth of infects it oc- 
cafions: in fhort, he difcuffes the famous 
problem of their remaining benumbed 
during winter; and proves, that artifi- 
cial cold, much greater than that ever na- 
turally felt in our climates, does not render 
thefe birds lethargic. He next {peaks of 
a {pecies of owl, hitherto very ill de- 
{cribed ; and laftly, of eels and their ge- 
neration, which is a problem ftill in fome 
meafure to be folved ; but he carries it on 
by his inquiries to that ftep which alone 
remains to be made for obtaining a com- 
plete olution; or to get over it eafily by 
a {mall numbtr of obfervations in thofe 
times 



