and, of course, the
position of the salt statue which was once Lot's wife. He not only
indicates places on land, but places in the sea; thus he shows where
Jonah was swallowed by the whale, and "where St. Peter caught one
hundred and fifty-three fishes."

As to the Dead Sea miracles generally, he does not dwell on them
at great length; he evidently felt that Quaresmio had exhausted the
subject; but he shows largely the fruits of Quaresmio's teaching in
other matters.

So, too, we find the thoughts and words of Quaresmio echoing afar
through the German universities, in public disquisitions, dissertations,
and sermons. The great Bible commentators, both Catholic and Protestant,
generally agreed in accepting them.

But, strong as this theological theory was, we find that, as time went
on, it required to be braced somewhat, and in 1692 Wedelius, Professor
of Medicine at Jena, chose as the subject of his inaugural address The
Physiology of the Destruction of Sodom and of the Statue of Salt.

It is a masterly example of "sanctified science." At great length he
dwells on the characteristics of sulphur, salt, and thunderbolts; mixes
up scriptural texts, theology, and chemistry after a most bewildering
fashion; and finally comes to the conclusion that a thunderbolt, flung
by the Almighty, calcined the body of Lot's wife, and at the same time
vitrified its particles into a glassy mass looking like salt.(437)

(437) For Zvallart, see his Tres-devot Voyage de Ierusalem, Antwerp,
1608, book iv, chapter viii. His journey was made twenty years before.
For Father Boucher, see his Bouquet de la Terre Saincte, Paris, 1622,
pp. 447, 448. For Heidmann, see his Palaestina, 1689, pp. 58-62. For
Belon's credulity in matters referred to, see his Observations de
Plusieurs Singularitez, etc., Paris, 1553, pp. 141-144; and for the
legend of the peas changed into pebbles, p. 145; see also Lartet in De
Luynes, vol. iii, p. 11. For Rauwolf, see the Reyssbuch, and Tobler,
Bibliographia. For a good acoount of the influence of Montaigne in
developing French scepticism, see Prevost-Paradol's study on Montaigne
prefixed to the Le Clerc edition of the Essays, Paris, 1865; also the
well-known passages in Lecky's Rationalism in Europe. For Quaresmio
I have consulted both the Plantin edition of 1639 and the superb new
Venice edition of 1880-'82. The latter, though less prized by book
fanciers, is the more valuable, since it contains some very int