subsequeut eruptions, till totally destroyed by the
most violent eruption of Vesuvius on record, that
of the year 471 A. D. having yielded several
specimens."

The MSS. examples mentioned in the citation, must
of necessity refer to specimens of writing made with
"vitriolic" and even more ancient inks. They are to
be considered in conjunction with the historical fact
that these cities were buried for more than sixteen
hundred years, counting from the first eruption, before
they were brought to light (Herculaneum was discovered
A. D. 1713 and Pompeii, forty years later);
also that they must have been subjected to intense
heat and a long period of decay which could only operate
to rob them of all traces of natural ink phenomena.
Furthermore, the information Mr. Humphreys
seeks to convey, dates contemporaneously with the first
eruption of Vesuvius, which occurred seventy-nine
years AFTER the Christian era and not seventy-nine
years BEFORE it.

This stupendous blunder involves a period of one
hundred and fifty-eight years; if it is rectified, the
"early Greek MSS." are shown to emanate from the
second half of the first century following the birth of
Christ and confirming to some extent the deductions
hereinbefore made, although the probabilities are that
they belong to later periods, included in the third and
fourth centuries.