Acids from vegetable recrements. Flint has its acid from the new world.
Its base in part from the old world, and in part from the new. Precious stones 215
Diamond. Its great refraction of light. Its volatibility by heat. If an inflammable body. 228
Fires of the new world from fermentation. Whence sulphur and bitumen by sublimation, the clay, coal, and flint remaining 275
Colours not distinguishable in the enamel-kiln, till a bit of dry wood is introduced 283
Etrurian pottery prior to the foundations of Rome. Excelled in fine forms, and in a non-vitreous encaustic painting, which was lost till restored by Mr. Wedgwood. Still influences the taste of the inhabitants 291
Mr. Wedgwood"s cameo of a slave in chains, and of Hope 315
Ba.s.so-relievos of two or more colours not made by the antients. Invented by Mr. Wedgwood 342
Petroleum and naptha have been sublimed. Whence jet and amber. They absorb air. Attract straws when rubbed. Electricity from electron the greek name for amber 353
Clefts in granite rocks in which metals are found. Iron and manganese found in all vegetables. Manganese in limestone. Warm springs from steam rising up the clefts of granite and limestone. Ponderous earth in limestone clefts and in granite. Copper, lead, iron, from descending materials. High mountains of granite contain no ores near their summits.
Trans.m.u.tation of metals. Of lead into calamy. Into silver 398
Armies of Cambytes destroyed by famine, and by sand-storms 435
Whirling turrets of sand described and explained 478
Granite shews iron as it decomposes. Marble decomposes. Immense quant.i.ty of charcoal exists in limestone. Volcanic slags decompose, and become clay 523
Millstones raised by wooden pegs 524
Hannibal made a pa.s.sage by fire over the Alps 534
Pa.s.sed tense of many words twofold, as driven or drove, spoken or spoke.
A poetic licence 609
CANTO III.
Clouds consist of aqueous spheres, which do not easily unite, like globules of quicksilver, as may be seen in riding through water. Owing to electricity. Snow. Hailstones rounded by attrition and dissolution of their angles. Not from frozen drops of water 15
Dew on points and edges of gra.s.s, or hangs over cabbage-leaves, needle floats on water 18
Mists over rivers and on mountains. Halo round the moon. Shadow of a church-steeple upon a mist. Dry mist, or want of transparency of the air, a sign of fair-weather 20
Tides on both sides of the earth. Moon"s tides should be much greater than the earth"s tides. The ocean of the moon is frozen 61
Spiral form of sh.e.l.ls saves calcareous matter. Serves them as an organ of hearing. Calcareous matter produced from inflamed membranes. Colours of sh.e.l.ls, labradore-stone from mother-pearl. Fossil sh.e.l.ls not now found recent 66
Sea-insects like flowers. Actinia 82
Production of pearls, not a disease of the fish. Crab"s eyes. Reservoirs of pearly matter 84
Rocks of coral in the south-sea. Coralloid limestone at Linsel, and Coalbrook Dale 90
Rocks thrown from mountains, ice from glaciers, and portions of earth, or mora.s.ses, removed by columns of water. Earth-motion in Shropshire.
Water of wells rising above the level of the ground. St. Alkmond"s well near Derby might be raised many yards, so as to serve the town. Well at Sheerness, and at Hartford in Connecticut 116
Moonsoons attended with rain Overflowing of the Nile. Vortex of ascending air. Rising of the Dogstar announces the floods of the Nile.
Anubis hung out upon their temples 129
Situations exempt from rain. At the Line in Lower Egypt. On the coast of Peru 138
Giesar, a boiling fountain in Iceland. Water with great degrees of heat dissolves siliceous matter. Earthquake from steam 150
Warm springs not from decomposed pyrites. From steam rising up fissures from great depths 166
Buxton bath possesses 82 degrees of heat. Is improperly called a warm bath. A chill at immersion, and then a sensation of warmth, like the eye in an obscure room owing to increased sensibility of the skin 184
Water compounded of pure air and inflammable air with as much matter of heat as preserves it fluid. Perpetually decomposed by vegetables in the sun"s light, and recomposed in the atmosphere 204
Mythological interpretation of Jupiter and Juno designed as an emblem of the composition of water from two airs 260
Death of Mrs. French 308
Tomb of Mr. Brindley 341
Invention of the pump. The piston lifts the atmosphere above it. The surrounding atmosphere presses up the water into the vacuum. Manner in which a child sucks 366
Air-cell in engines for extinguishing fire. Water dispersed by the explosion of Gunpowder. Houses preserved from fire by earth on the floors, by a second ceiling of iron-plates or coa.r.s.e mortar. Wood impregnated with alabaster or flint 406
Muscular actions and sensations of plants 460
River Achelous. Horn of Plenty 495
Flooding lands defends them from vernal frosts. Some springs deposit calcareous earth. Some contain azotic gas, which contributes to produce nitre. Snow water less serviceable 540
CANTO IV.
Cacalia produces much honey, that a part may be taken by insects without injury 2
a.n.a.lysis of common air. Source of azote. Of Oxygene. Water decomposed by vegetable pores and the sun"s light. Blood gives out phlogiston and receives vital air. Acquires heat and the vivifying principle 34
Cupid and Psyche 48