i bonum_, had I not observed very recently
one amongst other results probably attributable to it. In Professor
Phillips's "Vesuvius," if any one will refer to the passage beginning
"The mechanism of earthquake movement has been investigated by competent
hands. The late eminent mathematician, Mr. Hopkins, explained these
tremors in the solid earth by the general theory of vibratory motion,"
etc. (pages 257-259)--I think he must, in the absence of collateral
information, conclude that, not I, but Mr. Hopkins, was the discoverer
of the Theory of Earthquakes as explained by the general theory of
vibratory motion.

Probably my friend, Professor Phillips, had not recently referred to
those Memoirs and Reports of twenty-four years back, and I am thoroughly
convinced that, if he has here perpetuated an injustice, he has done so
unintentionally and unwittingly.

Still, the facts show how true it is that

"The ill men do lives after them,
The good they do is oft interred with their bones."

And I may venture to ask my friend, should his admirable book reach, as
I doubt not it will, another edition, to modify the passage.

[E] Assuming the point of ejection of this block (the crater) to be
8,000 feet above where it landed, and allowing it as high a density as
admissible, and the angle of projection the best for large horizontal
range, it may be proved that this mass, to reach nine miles
horizontally, would require an initial velocity of projection of from
1,500 to 1,600 feet per second, one as great as that of a smooth-bore
cannon-shot at the muzzle, and perfectly inconceivable to be produced by
a volcano.

[F] The Rev. O. Fisher, M.A., F.G.S., in a most interesting and valuable
Paper, "On the Elevation of Mountain Chains by Lateral Pressure, its
Cause, and the Amount of it, with a Speculation on the Origin of
Volcanic Action," read, April, 1868, and published in the Transactions
of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. XI., Part III., in 1869,
has deduced the necessary crushing of the earth's crust by a different
but closely analogous method. I had not seen this Paper until after my
own was in the hands of the Royal Society. The author's volcanic views
are wholly different from my own, and do not appear to me equally valid
with his notions as to elevation.--R. M.

[G] "Magna ista quia parvi sumus"--SENECA, "Quaes. Nat."

END.

TRANSLATION
OF

PROFESSOR PALMIERI'S

_ACCOUNT OF_
THE ERUPTION O