There Is A Professor Of Natural Philosophy Now At Naples, Of The Name Of
Amici, From Modena, Who Has Invented A Microscope Of Immense Power.
The
circulation of the blood in the thigh of a frog (the coldest animal in
nature), when viewed thro' this microscope, appears to take place with the
rapidity of a Swiss torrent.
Since I have been here, I have once more ascended Vesuvius; there was no
eruption at all this time, but I witnessed the sight of a stream of red-hot
liquid lava flowing slowly down the flank of the mountain. It was about two
and a half feet broad.
In my letters from Naples, the last time I was there, I gave you some idea
of the state of society. Among the upper classes gaming is reduced to a
science and is almost exclusively the order of the day. There is little or
no taste for litterature among any part of the native society. The upper
classes are sensualists; the middling ignorant and superstitious. With
regard to the Lazzaroni, I do not think that they at all deserve the ill
name that has been given to them. They always seem good humoured and
willing to work, when employment is given to them; and they do not appear
at all disposed to disturb the public peace, which, from their being so
numerous and formidable a body, they could easily do. The Neapolitan
dialect has a far greater affinity to the Spanish than to the Tuscan, and
there are likewise, a great many Greek words in it.
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