It was reserved, however, for the Abate Francesco Ferrara, Professor of Physical Science in the University of Catania, to furnish the first history of Etna and of its eruptions, which had any just claim to completeness. It is entitled, _Descrizione dell' Etna, con la Storia delle Eruzioni e il Catalogo del prodotti_. The first edition appeared in 1793, and a second was printed in Palermo in 1818. The author had an enthusiastic love for his subject:--"Nato sopra l'Etna," he writes, "che io conobbi ben presto palmo a palmo la mia passione per lo studio fissò la mia attenzione sul bello, e terribile fenomeno che avea avanti agli occhi." The work commences with a general description of the mountain--its height, the temperature of the different regions, the view from the summit, the mass, the water-springs, the vegetable and animal life, and the internal fires. This extends over sixty-nine octavo pages. The second part of the book--eighty pages--gives a history of the eruptions from the earliest times to the year 1811; the third part--sixty-seven pages--treats of the nature of the volcanic products; and the fourth part--thirty-four pages--discusses certain geological and physical considerations concerning the mountain. At the end there are a few badly drawn and engraved woodcuts, and a map which, although the trend of the coast-line is quite wrong, is otherwise fairly good. The engravings represent the mountain as seen from Catania; the Isole dei Ciclopi, and the neighbouring coast; the Montagna della Motta; and a view from Catania of the eruption of 1787. This work has evidently to a great extent been a labour of love; it is full of personal observations, and also embodies the results of many other observers. It has furnished the foundation of much that has since been written concerning Etna.