I Wrote to you on the 26th of November last, concerning the earthquake
felt some time before between the Rhine and the Meuse. I have been
since informed by Professor Donati of Turin, that a slight shock had
been perceived there on the 13th of August 1756, at a quarter after
nine in the morning. It was likewise felt in other parts of Piedmont.
He has also communicated to me an extract of a letter of a professor of
Genoa, one of his friends, of which the following is a translation.
“On the 9th of November we felt here two shocks of an earthquake; one
at 20¾ hours, according to the Italian way of reckoning; the other
at about 4½ hours at night. I did not perceive the first, being then
walking in the house; but I felt the second. I was then laid down, and
going to sleep. The direction of the undulations was from north to
south, as far as I could judge.”
Mons. Donati took last summer, according to his custom, a journey,
in order to prosecute his researches into natural history. He was
accompanied by Dr. Ascanius, Fellow of the Royal Society; who was still
in doubt about coral’s being a composition of animals. Mons. Donati
carried him to the sea of Provence. He ordered coral to be fished up
in his presence. He placed it in a large vessel full of water; and
carried this vessel on shore; where he soon convinced Dr. Ascanius, by
his own eyes, that coral is a mass of animals of the polype-kind.
Mons. Donati has written to me, that he has thoroughly satisfied
himself by his last observations, that the polypes are fixed to their
cells; of which he had before doubted. What he says afterwards of
coral appears to me to express with more truth and precision what we
ought to think of this kind of animals, than any of the descriptions,
which have been given since the new discoveries have changed our
sentiments on that subject. Polype-beds, and the cells, which they
contain, are commonly spoken of as being the work of polypes. They
are compared to the honeycomb made by bees. It is more exact to say,
that coral, and other coralline bodies, have the same relation to the
polypes united to them, that there is between the shell of a snail and
the snail itself, or between the bones of an animal, and the animal
itself. Mons. Donati’s words are as follow. “I am now of opinion,
that coral is nothing else than a real animal, which has a very great
number of heads. I consider the polypes of coral only as the heads of
the animal. This animal has a bone ramified in the shape of a shrub.
This bone is covered with a kind of flesh, which is the flesh of the
animal. My observations have discovered to me several analogies between
the animals of kinds approaching to this. There are, for instance,
keratophyta, which do not differ from coral, except in the bone or
part, that forms the prop of the animal. In the coral it is testaceous,
and in the keratophyta it is horny.”
The observations, which I have made upon some kind of polype-beds,
lead me to think, that what are called polypes, in those bodies,
which are observed to come out of and return into the cells, are more
than the heads of the animal. I have seen some, which had a bag,
into which pass’d their food, which I saw them swallow; and another
bag, into which passed the grossest part of that food, after it was
digested. This is the case, for instance, of the plumed polypes, which
I described at the end of the third memoir, in the work published by me
on one kind of fresh-water polypes.
Mons. Donati has observed divers very curious facts in the journey,
which he made into the mountains. He has, in particular, traced out an
immense bed of marine bodies. This bed crosses the highest mountains,
which separate Provence from Piedmont, and loses itself in the plains
of Piedmont.
He has likewise observed a mass of rock, which forms the extremity of
a pretty high mountain, the foot of which is washed by the sea. This
rock is at a considerable height, intirely pierced by pholades, that
species of marine shell-fish so well known, which digs cells into the
stones. It appears from hence, that this rock was some time covered
by the sea. According to Mons. Donati, the sea has insensibly retired
from the parts, which were washed by it; and he thinks, that there
must have been a very considerable space of time between that and the
time, when this mountain, pierced by pholades, was covered by the
waters of the sea. He deduces his opinion from the following fact.
There is in this rock, pretty near the surface of the sea, a natural
cavern fill’d with earth. In this earth have been found ancient Roman
sarcophagi and lamps. It follows from hence, that even in the time of
the Romans this part of the rock, in which this cavern is situated, was
not under water. As there is but a small distance between the cavern
and the surface of the water, it follows, that the water has sunk but
very little since the time of the Romans. If it has sunk in the same
proportion since the time, when it covered the top of the rock, there
is no doubt, but that the time, when it was intirely covered by the
sea, must have been very distant. If the same manner of reasoning be
used, with respect to the bed of marine bodies, mentioned above, which
crosses the mountains, that separate Provence from Piedmont, we shall
be obliged to presume, that the time, when those mountains were under
the waters of the sea, was at a very great distance from the present.
Mons. Donati concludes from these facts, and the consequences deduced
from them, that the Mediterranean sea is a very ancient, and not a
modern one, as Mons. de Buffon imagines.
Those, who explain all phænomena of marine bodies found out of the
sea, by an universal deluge, do not admit the consequences drawn by
Mons. Donati from those marine bodies now under consideration. It is
plain, that most of the naturalists, who have observed a great number
of these marine bodies, are not of opinion, that all those phænomena
can be explained by a universal deluge. Upon these subjects, before we
undertake to judge, it is proper to be well informed of the nature of
marine fossile bodies, which are found in divers parts, and of their
situation and arrangement. It is necessary likewise to be acquainted
with the state of those, which are found actually under the sea, and
the revolutions, to which they are subject, while they are covered
by it. It is still farther requisite to have an attention to the
revolutions, which have been and are constantly observed, with respect
to the sea-shores, which change their situation in several parts, some
advancing upon the land, and others retiring. If all these different
facts be compared together, it will not be doubted, but there are
actually under the earth marine bodies which are found there only in
consequence of these slow revolutions, and not of an universal deluge.
Perhaps this notion might be extended to the greatest part of the
marine fossile bodies, which are known to us.
Mons. Donati informs me, that he would be glad to present to the Royal
Society an history of coral, if he thought, that it would be agreeable
to them.
XII. _A brief Botanical and Medical History of the_ Solanum Lethale,
Bella-donna, _or_ Deadly Nightshade, _by Mr._ Richard Pultney.
_Communicated by Mr._ William Watson, _F.R.S._
[Read Feb. 17, 1757.]
BELLA-DONNA is the name, which the Italians, and particularly the
Venetians, apply to this plant; and Mr. Ray[1] observes, that is so
called because the Italian ladies make a cosmetic from the juice,
or distilled water, which they use to make their complexion fair and
white. Others[2] suppose it derives its name from its intoxicating
quality. With us it is generally known by the name of Deadly
Nightshade, or Dwale, tho’ this last term is seldom used for it; and
the old French word _Morelle_, which Lobel applies to it, seems to be
quite forgotten amongst us.