fore, probably, been in the left cavity, under the fcapula; and hence the pain the patient complained of at the beginning.

This excrefcence--had indeed extended to the right fide of the breaft; but ftill it was not fo confiderable there as not to leave fome room for the admiffion of air, and for fome degree of action to the lobe on that ride, in refpiration. The great veffels how ever, and even the heart itfelf, with its pericardium, were pushed fomewhat out of their places. The refpiration could, therefore, only take place in this lower part of the right cavity of the thorax, because this excrefence being at the top of the breaft, where it is narroweft in the human fubject, the lungs were preffed down towards the inferior part of the cavity, where the breaft becomes fomewhat wider. This, therefore, explains the extraordinary efforts .. made by the patient, to draw his breath from this lower part; the bronchiæ being comprefied above by this fubftance. Hence, too, the hollowness of his voice. Befides all this, the right lobe was found adhering to the pleura, only at the upper part of the breaft. About the middle, it was feen at tached to this tumour; fo that here was another hindrance to the action of this lobe.

Boerhaave attempted to feparate the whole of this fubftance from the other parts, to which it was attached. It was impoffible to take it out at once and entire, on account of the pericardium, lungs, and great veffels. He extracted it, however, in the beft manner he was able, and found the weight of it to be fix pounds and three quarters. As it was

light in proportion to its fize, fome idea may be formed of its exceffive bulk. The whole of this fubftance was as white as fnow. Here and there appeared a milky fluid, on cutting into it. No veffels, however, were to be perceived in it, excepting those to which it was attached: Except the fkin, that enclosed the whole, there was no appearance of any cauls, or cavities, or membrane within. If any portion of this fubftance was rubbed between the fingers, it melted like fat oil. It was, therefore, in Boerhaave's opinion, the true featoma.

The difplacement of all the thoracic vifcera was altogether fingular. This fubftance had pushed the diaphragm downwards; and this had occafioned the tumefac tion of the lower belly, which Boerhaave noticed at the first as a fingular appearance. The pericardium being united to the diaphraghm, had followed it, and, of courie, removed from its natu ral fituation. This was followed by a depreffion of the great veffels. We have already feen the ftate of the lungs.

Here then was a new example of human mifery. A mild, unétu. ous, an innocent humour, occafioned, by its abundance, a fingular difeafe, and death; and this, from is fixing itself in too great a quantity on parts which can in no degree be compreffed without danger. We learn from this, therefore, that, in extraordinary difeafes, we may reasonably fuppofe fome hidden and unknown caufe, which anatomy alone can be likely to explain.

It were to be wifhed, fays Boerhaave, that the experienced phyfician might be able to difcover

the

the fource of a fimilar complaint, from his first feeing the patient; and that he might then be able to prevent this fat from fpreading, fo as to form fo destructive a mais; we might then hope to be able to prevent the diforders it occafions; because it is impoffible to refolve or diffipate a fteatoma that is once formed, unlefs its fituation fhould admit of manual operation.

Boerhaave confeffes, that he knew no medicine that would prevent a beginning fteatoma from enlarging; and that which is not to be done externally, must be lefs poffible within. Every time, therefore, fays he, that I hear great talkers vaunting their remedies for this purpose, I wish to fee them cure fchirrous tumours, occult and ulcerated cancers, meliceris; fteatoma, &c. by certain means, and thus give us a proof of their art. As for my part, I have obferved that all prudent and experienced phyficians allowed their infufficiency on thefe occafions, though they did it with regret.

It would feem as if Boerhaave might meet with fome reproaches, for his method of treating the

Nothing could be more grateful to the ignorant and illiberal, men of little minds, and of a narrow way of thinking, than an opportunity of cenfuring fo great a genius as Boerhaave. There are, even now, perfons of this difpofition, who, in reading this narrative, will perhaps be led to afcribe the diforder of the Marquis to the fuppreffion of the hemorrhoids. But the great Boerhaave has replied to thefe frivolous judges, by VOL. XXV.

faying that a fteatoma, cannot be derived from the cure, or the fuppreffion of the hemorrhoids; that he had cured them neither by cauftic nor by any other external application, but by mild, emollient, and deterfive remedies; and that no figns of plethora had been perceived when the hemorrhoidal flux began to diminish. In fhort, fays he, with his ufual candour and dignity of mind, let every one judge freely and fincerely for himself; I have defcribed the dif eafe, fuch as I faw it.

The phyfician, therefore, as well as the mathematician, has fulfilled his duty, when he has proved that a difficulty is, in every fenfe and point of view, inexplicable. He who proves a difeafe to be impenetrable, and of courfe incurable, deferves as much of our efteem as he who points out the feat of a difeafe, and the method of curing it.

Account of Mount Vesuvius in the Year 1777. From Travels into the Two Sicilies, by Henry Swinburne, Efq.

THE unavoidable hurry upon

our arrival, prevented me from vifiting Vefuvius while the eruption continued. As foon as I was at liberty, I hired a hackney two-wheeled chaife, called a Caleffo; which is no more than a very uneafy triangular feat, gilt and bedaubed with gaudy colours, fixed upon an axletree, and drawn by a fingle horfe. Some of these horfes fell very dear, and go at a prodigious rate, always in a high trot. The driver ftands behind, and with the whip and voice diG

rects

rects the horfe's motion. The hirer holds the reins; but is not refponfible for any mifchief the carriage may do, unless he alfo take poffeffion of the lafh. The reins are faftened to a caveffon, without a bit; and the more the animal is pulied, the fafter he goes: a hifs ftops him.

One of thefe chairs conveyed me about eight miles from Naples, to the place where the lava ceafed to run, after filling up a road, overturning fome cottages, and confuming a wide track of vine. yards. The poplars, to which the vines were tied, were burnt or crushed beneath the weight of the cooler lumps that tumbled off on each fide from the fiery mafs. The furface of this black and now ftagnant river is very uneven, full of points and protuberances, and broken into chafins. It anfwers the idea I have of a rocky mountain overturned into a valley, and fhattered to pieces by an earthquake. In colour, the lava refembles flag, or the first clearings of an iron mine. The intenfe heat that fill iffued from it, though the flames were not vifible by day-light, kept me at a diftance. By night, fire may be feen through the crevices of the dufky cruft. It had run clofe to a lava of feventeen years date, which is not yet fufficiently triturated by the action of air, to afford hold to the feeds of any plant, except a long hoary mofs, commonly the first fettler on thefe cinders, which are infinitely fofter, and fooner crumbled to duft, than the Sciarras of Ætna,

After fatisfying my curiofity with an attentive examination of thefe objects, I returned to Por

tici, hired a guide and mule, and rode up through the vineyards to the foot of the mountain, where vegetation terminates in a long coarse grafs, the only plant that can bear the vicinity of the hot afhes and fulphureous exhalations. I afcended the fteep cone of cinders in a direct line, up to the ancles at every step in purple lukewarm afhes. The heat was not very powerful till we came within a few yards of the fummit, and there fmoke breaks out through many crannies. On the Portici fide there is very little lava, except a few fcattered stones that ferve to rest upon. It is impot fible to give a juft idea of the fatigue of this climbing. Before that day I had mounted fome very exalted points of the Alps, and clambered up the highest peak of the Pyrenees, without feeling fuch oppreffive wearinefs and exhaustion of fpirits and ftrength as I experienced on Vefuvius. Perhaps, the mephitic effluvium, which attacked my refpiration, may allo have had a debilitating effect upon my nerves and mufcles. I fhould hardly have been able to proceed, had I not held by my guide, who went before, with a handkerchief tied round his wailt.

I confefs I was a good deal difappointed on reaching the fummit; for the defcriptions I had read had raifed in my imagination an expectation of every thing that could be glaring and ftriking in colours, pompous and tremendous in a scene of igneous phænotuena; but the late eruption had, for a time, laid all the mountain's fury afleep, and every thing was dull and dark. The vent, by which the lava ran out, is much below the

the top of the mountain; and on that fide the fulphureous fteams are very pungent. I was on the point of returning rather fruftrated of my hopes, when a curling column of fmoke and flame rofe flowly out of the gloomy abyfs, and brought up with it a thick white cloud, that had hitherto rendered the crater impervious to my fight. The wind quickly caught hold of this column, and whirled it round the immenfe caldron feveral times with inconceivable noife and velocity, till it forced part of the fmoke to fly off horizontally from the mountain, and dafhed the remainder back into its original cavern. During this conflict, on the oppofite fide to that where we flood, I had a peep very far into the crater. The fides feemed all lava and fcoria, with very little variety in the tints, closed at bottom by an impenetrable screen of fmoke. I have feen old ruined coalpits, that afford a tolerable idea of this volcanic kettle. As foon as the fmoke was driven away, the roaring below grew loud, and frequent explofions were beard with a hollow found; and at every throe, which caufed a very confiderable commotion in the thin arch on which we ftood, a fhower of red-hot stones was fhot up; but not rifing many feet above the mountain, they did not come within the sweep of the wind, and fo fell back perpendicularly into the rumbling gulf.

plete, and reputation on that head fo firmly established at Naples, that more than once the court has waited to regulate its stay at Portici, or removal from thence, till he had declared when he thought the eruption would begin, and what direction the lava was likely to follow. Many writers of dif fertations on ignivomous moun tains, have been led into a laby rinth of mistakes, falfe pofitions, and falfe confequences, by trufting folely to the relations of others, and not being at the pains of examining the phanomena with their own eyes. Whoever has not had the advantage of infpecting an active volcano, fhould not prefume to write upon that fubject, as he muft unavoidably fall into error, in fpite of all the learning, combinations, and fagacity the wit of man is fufceptible of. Indeed, fome authors, who have had Vefuvius before their eyes for forty years, have likewife fallen into trange indefenfible opinions concerning its component parts, original formation, and modes of operating. Attachment to fyftem misleads us all, and frequently caufes us to fee things, not as they are, but as we wish to find them. Nothing but the defire of proving Vefuvius to be a primordial mountain, and not the produce of eruptions, could have brought Padre della Torie to believe that he faw regular, original, calcarious, and grnite ftrata, far down in the bowels of the mountain; where, if he faw any thing, it was probably streaks of fulphureous and mineral efflorefcences adhering to the coats of the funnel. Nothing but fyftem could have fo blinded Richard, as

I fhall not prefume to investigate minutely the origin, compofition, or operation of the mountain, as we have ample information on this fubject in the works of Sir William Hamilton. His know ledge of the volcano is fo com

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