Copy 1, Volume 1
A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith.
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Date:
- [between 1800 and 1899?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
62/436 page 54
![ances. In fact, much of the salubrity, and much of the unwholesomeness, of climates and soils, is to be ascribed to these vapours, which make their way from the bowels of the earth upwards, and refresh or taint the air with their exhalations. Salt mines, being naturally cold,* send forth a degree of coldness to the external air, to comfort and refresh it: on the contrary, metallic mines are known, not only to warm it with their exhalations, but often to destroy all kinds of vegetation by their volatile corrosive fumes. In some mines, dense vapours are plainly per- ceived issuing from their mouths, .and sensibly warm to the touch. In some places, neither snow nor ice will con- tinue on the ground that covers a mine; and over others the fields are found destitute of verdure.f The inhabit- ants, also, are rendered dreadfully sensible of these sub- terraneous exhalations, being affected with such a variety of evils proceeding entirely from this cause, that books have been professedly written upon this class of disorders. Nor are these vapours, which thus escape to the sur- face of the earth, entirely unconfined; for they are fre- quently, in a manner, circumscribed to a spot. The grotto Del Cane, near Naples, is an instance of this; the noxious effects of which have made that cavern so very famous. This grotto, which has so much employed the attention of travellers, lies within four miles of Naples, and is situ- ated near a large lake of clear wholesome water.:]: No- thing can exceed the beauty of the landscape which this lake affords; being surrounded with hills covered with forests of the most beautiful verdure, and the whole bearing a kind of amphitheatrical appearance. However, this region, beautiful as it appears, is almost entirely un- inhabited; the few peasants that necessity compels to reside there, looking quite consumptive and ghastly, from the poisonous exhalations that rise from the earth. The famous grotto lies on the side of a hill, near which place a peasant resides, who keeps a number of dogs for the purpose of shewing the experiment to the curious. These poor animals always seem perfectly sensible of the ap- proach of a stranger, and endeavour to get out of the way. However, their attempts being perceived, they are * Phil. Trans, vol. ii. p. 523. t Boyle, vol. hi. p. 238. X Kircher, Mund. Subt, vol. i. p. ipi. ^ I](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28776094_0001_0062.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
