Library Notes
August 20, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Let us return to Pompeii this day,
As we make our way,
Continuing on Pansy’s vacation,
And hear what she has to say.
After the terrible eruptions in 79AD that destroyed the city, my handy little book continues: "There were further eruptions in 202, 472, 512, 635, 993, 1036 and 1139, after which the volcano was silent, and the whole surface was covered once again with forests and farmland until December 1631, when it re-awakened so violently that all crops and houses were destroyed, and there were thousands of human victims. From then on numerous other eruptions followed, damaging, altering the mountain itself. Then after 1906, when the lava flow stopped a few feet from Torre Annunziata, there were other minor eruptions until the alarming one in 1944."
Well, wanting to know more about this volcano and its’ eruptions, especially the "alarming one in 1944", I went to my trusty World Book next. Here is what we learn from it: In 472, ashes poured from the crater in such great amounts that they were carried by the wind as far as Constantinople (Istanbul). Streams of lava and boiling water fell on the villages at the foot of the mount in 1631. About 4,000 people were said to have died. There were other destructive eruptions in 1794, 1822, 1855, 1872, 1880, 1895, 1906, 1929 and 1944.
The greatest destruction in recent years occurred in April 1906, when several towns were destroyed. In the eruption of March 1944, which destroyed the village of San Sebastiano, soldiers of the Allied armies helped the people of nearby towns escape the lava and volcanic dust.
Before the eruption of 1944, thousands of visitors came to Vesuvius every year. They could go down into the crater for some distance and see a crimson stream of lava flow from the cone and turn into a bed of cold stone. A cable railway which took visitors to within 450 feet of the edge of the crater was destroyed in this eruption. Many people still visit the area.
A Royal Observatory was established on the slopes of the mountain in 1844. Since that time scientists have kept a constant watch over the volcano during and between eruptions. One observer lost his life standing by his post."
And now, let us learn more about this Vesuvius feller that has caused so much destruction and just refuses to settle down and lay dormant henceforth: (World Book continuing) "Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe. It is probably the most famous volcano in the world. It rises on the Bay of Naples, about 7 miles southeast of the city of Naples, Italy. Vesuvius has been studied by scientists more than any other volcano because it erupts frequently and is easy to reach. Vesuvius is a cone within the rim of Mt. Somma, a big crater formed when the top of the mountain collapsed in the eruption of A.D. 79. The height of the cone changes with each eruption. In 1900, it was 4,275 feet. But after several eruptions since then, its’ height as dropped to 4,190 feet. The top of the cone is a cup-shaped crater, ranging from 50 to 400 feet across. Vesuvius spouts columns of steam, cinders, and sometimes small amount of lava into the air.
Many people live on the lower slopes of the mountain and on the plains at its’ foot, in spite of its’ history of eruptions. The volcanic soil is extremely fertile and the area is famous for its vineyards of wine grapes."
Now, if you have to do a book report on Pompeii, you’ll know what to write! Isn’t that something? The only live volcano in Europe and so active. Trish was there in 1998 and she said that they told her group that the volcano was apt to erupt again at any time. It was not smoking or spitting when I was there and I am glad. I did not know that it was still active. I would not have been that relaxed, had I known that while I was strolling about the ruins remaining from this flaming, spewing feller. Just think, this thing has been erupting since A.D. 79, hundreds and hundreds of years, and still active. I don’t understand how it can last so long. Seems as though it would have blown itself away by now.
We’ll leave Vesuvius for this week, very glad that he did not make himself known while we were there. And, we’ll hear in the future if he decides to blow his top again. Let’s look at this calm book in this calm library (Well, most of the time) and be calm ourselves.
Then I shall calmly tell you about the latest novel by Michael Palmer. Being a doctor himself, he writes these mysterious medical stories. You read this one and if you like it, we have most of his books right here, right now on these library shelves. This one is entitled "The Society".
"At the headquarters of Boston’s Eastern Quality Health, the wealthy and powerful CEO is brutally murdered. She’s not the first to die – nor the last. A vicious serial killer is on the loose and the victims have one thing in common: they are all high-profile executives in the managed care industry.
Dr. Will Grant is an overworked and highly dedicated surgeon. He has experienced firsthand the outrages of a system that cares more about the bottom line than about the life-and-death issues of patients. As a member of the Hippocrates Society, Will seeks to reclaim the profession of medicine from the hundreds of companies profiting wildly by controlling the decisions that affect the delivery of care. But the doctor’s determination has attracted a dangerous zealot who will stop at nothing to make Will his ally. Soon Will is both a suspect and a victim, a pawn in a deadly endgame. Then, in one horrible moment, Will’s professional and personal worlds are destroyed and his very life placed in peril.
Rookie detective Patty Moriarity is in danger of being removed from her first big case – the managed care killings. To save her career he has no choice but to risk trusting Will, knowing he may well be the killer she is hunting. Together they have little to go on except the knowledge that the assassin is vengeful, cunning, ruthless – and may not be working alone. That – and a cryptic message that grows longer with each murder: a message Grant and Moriarity must decipher if they don’t want to be the next victims."