the Tuscan geologists, uniformly contended, while it
was warmly supported by the members of the Institute of Bologna.[72]

Among others of that day, Spada, a priest of Grezzana, in 1737, wrote to
prove that the petrified marine bodies near Verona were not
diluvian.[73] Mattani drew a similar inference from the shells of
Volterra and other places; while Costantini, on the other hand, whose
observations on the valley of the Brenta and other districts were not
without value, undertook to vindicate the truth of the deluge, as also
to prove that Italy had been peopled by the descendants of Japhet.[74]

_Moro_, 1740.--Lazzaro Moro, in his work (published in 1740) "On the
Marine Bodies which are found in the Mountains,"[75] attempted to apply
the theory of earthquakes, as expounded by Strabo, Pliny, and other
ancient authors, with whom he was familiar, to the geological phenomena
described by Vallisneri.[76] His attention was awakened to the
elevating power of subterranean forces by a remarkable phenomenon which
happened in his own time, and which had also been noticed by Vallisneri
in his letters. A new island rose in 1707 from deep water in the Gulf of
Santorin, in the Mediterranean, during continued shocks of an
earthquake, and, increasing rapidly in size, grew in less than a month
to be half a mile in circumference, and about twenty-five feet above
high-water mark. It was soon afterwards covered by volcanic ejections,
but, when first examined, it was found to be a white rock, bearing on
its surface living oysters and crustacea. In order to ridicule the
various theories then in vogue, Moro ingeniously supposes the arrival on
this new island of a party of naturalists ignorant of its recent origin.
One immediately points to the marine shells, as proofs of the universal
deluge; another argues that they demonstrate the former residence of the
sea upon the mountains; a third dismisses them as mere _sports of
nature_; while a fourth affirms that they were born and nourished within
the rock in ancient caverns, into which salt water had been raised in
the shape of vapor by the action of subterranean heat.

Moro pointed with great judgment to the _faults_ and dislocations of the
strata described by Vallisneri, in the Alps and other chains, in
confirmation of his doctrine, that the continents had been heaved up by
subterranean movements. He objected, on solid grounds, to the hypothesis
of Burnet and of Woodward; yet he ventured so