The ancients were acquainted only with the four or five active volcanoes in the Mediterranean area; the term 'volcano' being the name of one of these (Vulcano, or Volcano, in the Lipari Islands), which has come to be applied to all similar phenomena. It is only in comparatively modern times that it has become a known £act that many hundreds of volcanoes exist upon the globe, and are scattered over almost every part of its surface. Classical mythology appropriated Vulcano as the forge of Hephæstus, and his Roman representative Vulcan, while Etna was regarded as formed by the mountains under which a vengeful deity had buried the rebellious Typhon; it may be imagined, therefore, that any endeavour to more closely investigate the phenomena displayed at these localities would be regarded, not simply as an act of temerity, but as one of actual impiety. In mediæval times similar feelings would operate with not less force in the same direction, for the popular belief identified the subterranean fires with a place of everlasting torment; Vulcano was regarded as the place of punishment of the Arian Emperor Theodosius, while Etna was assigned to poor Anne Boleyn, the perverter of faith in the person of its stoutest defender. That such feelings of superstitious terror in connection with volcanoes are, even at the present day, far from being extinct, will be attested by every traveller who, in carrying on investigations about volcanic centres, has had to avail himself of the assistance of guides and attendants from among the common people. Among the great writers of antiquity we find several who had so far emancipated their minds from the popular superstitions as to be able to enunciate just and rational views upon the subject of volcanoes. Until quite recent times, however, their teaching was quite forgotten or neglected, and the modern science of Vulcanology may be said to have entirely grown up within the last one hundred years. The great pioneer in this important branch of research was the illustrious Italian naturalist Spallanzani, who, in the year 1788, visited the several volcanoes of his native land, and published an account of the numerous valuable and original observations which he had made upon them. About the same time the French geologist Dolomieu showed how much light might be thrown on the nature of volcanic action by a study of the various materials which are ejected from volcanic vents; while our own countryman. Sir William Hamilton, was engaged in a systematic study of the changes in form of volcanic mountains, and of the causes which determine their growth. At a somewhat later date the three German naturalists. Von Buch, Humboldt, and Abich, greatly extended our knowledge of volcanoes by their travels in different portions of the globe. [Sidenote: CHARACTER OF MODERN RESEARCHES.]