An Extract of the Substance of Three Letters from Isaac Jamineau, Esq; His Majesty's Consul at Naples, to Sir Francis Hoskins Eyles Stiles, Bart. and F. R. S. concerning the Late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius

Mr. George Edwards, Librarian of the College of Physicians, having lately drawn, and etched on a copper-plate, the hand of this boy, in such manner, as to shew the palm free from these excrescencies, and its other parts covered with them; and also a company of the excrescencies, as they appear where largest; a copy of the said plate, which I was favoured with by him, is now presented with this account. January 23, 1755. VI. An Extract of the Substance of Three Letters from Isaac Jamineau, Esq; his Majesty's Consul at Naples, to Sir Francis Hoskins Eyles Stiles, Bart. and F. R. S. concerning the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In the first of these letters, which is dated December 7, 1754, Mr. Jamineau acquaints Sir Francis, that they were then in the third day of an eruption of Vesuvius, which already far exceeded the last in 1751, and bids fair to equal any of those since the burial of Herculaneum. It is some time that they have expected the present, from foregoing circumstances, similar to, though more extraordinary than, those of former eruptions. Mr. Jamineau himself was witness to the following ones. In April last, the fire issued from one end of a hillock, in the shape of a crescent, within the c., to which you descended from the upper upper rim of the hill. At that time the descent was about eighty feet, which Mr. Jamineau measured himself. On his second visit, in September, the crescent was turned to a cone, but much higher than before, being increased in proportion to the fire, that now discharged, by frequent explosions, thousands of stones on fire. On a third visit, in the middle of October, the cone seemed lower, which was owing to the rising of the bottom of the cup, whose depth from eighty feet was decreased to fifty. The lava was actually running in many places; and where it was not, the fire was universally visible within a foot or two of the surface. They descended to the bottom, and approached the running lava, whose progress was so slow, that they sat a full quarter of an hour within three yards of it, in its course, before they were obliged to shift their places. Such of the guides, as had shoes on, ran over the very matter as it was proceeding, and it was with difficulty, that Mr. Jamineau prevented one of those, who had not, from doing the same thing. This he was induced to do from a passage of an inscription at Portici, describing the course and effects of the lava, *Si corripit, actum est, periisti*. Whence he was apprehensive of the effects of the matter's adhering to this man's feet; for he was under no apprehension of his sinking in, since the upper coat of this substance was so hard, as to bear the throwing the largest stones two of the company could lift, with very little impression, at the same time that the bottom was penetrable, with ease, to a small stick they thrust into it. The running of the lava within the crater increased so that in a month's time the cup was filled within twenty-five feet. feet of the top. On which one Mr. Vernet (on whose judgment Mr. Jamineau could rely) pronounced, that there must be soon an eruption from the sides, or an overflowing at the top. Accordingly, on Tuesday the third of December, at night, after a little shaking, which was not felt above two or three miles off, an opening burst on the eastern side of the mountain; but the matter soon ceased running from this orifice, and burst out from a much greater one, about two hundred yards below it. From this there afterwards overflowed no matter; but the lava has run from it within, though very near, the surface, to a third furnace, whence the liquid fire now pours out. This chanel of fire, after falling from the third furnace, with great fury, a few yards, is covered by the hard exterior surface of the lava, which cools and incrusts on its surface, as its course is on a level or gently declining ground, till it comes within ten yards of the top of a steep declivity. Here the fire collects as in a reservoir, to supply a cascade, which rushes down from thence in a channel of more than twenty feet wide, and about two hundred yards in length, with a fall of at least fifty feet, divided upon such length. After which the stream is less rapid, but grows wider, and has already forced its course for four miles from the source, where it affords a very different scene from what it presented from its first eruption. For there it runs over a country already destroyed; the cascade looks like melted gold, and tears off large bodies of old lava, which float down the stream, till the intensity of the heat lights them from the bottom. But, in the lower country, the chanel is divided into lesser streams, running with with less rapidity; whence, notwithstanding its flow- ness, it drives the strongest stone fences before it, and from lighting the trees, like torches, affords a most extraordinary, though dismal and pitiful, spectacle. The second letter is dated December 14, 1754, and only gives an account of the continuance of this eruption. The third letter, which bears date the 17th of the same December, says, that Vesuvius increases his glory and desolation; and that the stream of fire men- tioned in the first letter is a mere rivulet, when compared to a second, of which Mr. Jamineau pro- poses to give an account in a subsequent letter. Extract of another Letter from Mr. Jami- neau, the British Consul at Naples, to Sir F. H. Eyles Stiles, dated December 21, 1754. Read Jan. 23, 1755. I Should wish to say something of the main branch of the fiery river, which I never saw till two days since; but the departure of the post confines me to say this only, that the lesser, which I saw before, is a small trout-stream com- pared to this, which sets off in a cascade of a mile's length, and, though rather with a less declivity, is equally rapid, from the greater quantity of matter rushing down it. The breadth was about sixty feet at the top; but by having melted down an island, that divided its stream about two hundred yards in the fall, fall, which I will answer for its having done now, by the progress I saw made towards it for the hour that I staid; I say, now, the breadth in that place must be above a hundred yards. Extract of a Letter from the same Gentleman, to the same, dated December 28, 1754. Read Jan. 23, Vesuvius runs but with one, though 1755 that the most considerable stream of fire: he has also changed his note at top, and is now more angry than ever, throwing up stones and matter in greater abundance. VII. An Account of the Species of Plant, from which the Agaric, used as a Styptic, is prepared. By Mr. William Watson, F. R. S. London, Feb. 1. 1755. Read Feb. 6, Lately acquainted the Royal Society, 1755 that I had some doubts, arising from the pieces I had seen, whether the agaric sent from France, and applied as a styptic after amputations, was the fungus in caudicibus nascens, pedis equini figurâ, of Caspar Bauhin; or the fungus coriaceus quercinus hæmatodes of Breynius, of which I gave a short history. In order therefore to be confirmed in this matter, I wrote to our worthy brother M. Clairaut, of Paris, to lay some queries, I drew up, before M. Bernard de Jussieu, and M. Morand, both members