ary authorities distributed rations
and placed huts and tents at the disposition of the homeless.

The property loss from the volcanic outbreak has been placed at more
than $25,000,000, while some have estimated that the number of persons
rendered homeless amounted to nearly 150,000. Probably less than
one-half of that number would come near the exact figures.

As an evidence of the widespread and far-reaching influences set in
motion by the eruptions of Vesuvius it should be noted that Father
Odenbach of St. Ignatius' college in Cleveland, O., the noted
authority on seismic disturbances, reported that his microseismograph,
the most delicate instrument known for detecting the presence of
earthquakes in any part of the globe, had plainly recorded the
disturbances caused by the eruption of Vesuvius. The lines made by the
recorder, he said, had shown a wavy motion for several days,
indicating a severe agitation in the earth's surface at a remote
point.

CHAPTER XXIII.

VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES EXPLAINED.

BY TRUMBULL WHITE.

=The Theories of Science on Seismic Convulsions--Volcanoes
Likened to Boils on the Human Body through Which the Fires
and Impurities of the Blood Manifest Themselves--Seepage of
Ocean Waters through Crevices in the Rock Reach the Internal
Fires of the Earth--Steam is Generated and an Explosion
Follows--Geysers and Steam Boilers as Illustrations--Views
of the World's Most Eminent Scientists Concerning the Causes
of Eruption of Mount Pelee and La Soufriere.=

The earth, like the human body, is subject to constitutional
derangement. The fires and impurities of the blood manifest themselves
in the shape of boils and eruptions upon the human body. The internal
heat of the earth and the chemical changes which are constantly taking
place in the interior of the globe, manifest themselves outwardly in
the form of earthquakes and volcanoes. In other words, a volcano is a
boil or eruption upon the earth's surface.

Scientists have advanced many theories concerning the primary causes
of volcanoes, and many explanations relating to the igneous matter
discharged from their craters. Like the doctors who disagree in the
diagnosis of a human malady, the geologists and volcanists are equally
unable to agree in all details concerning this form of the earth's
ailment. After all theories relating to the cause of volcanoes have
been considered, the one that is most tenable