Jökull - 01.01.2001, Side 76

S. P. van Swinden
the disease was determined already by 25 June. The
sap of the plants was already damaged on this day,
although the leaves externally still seemed healthy
(which Dr. Brugmannusnus gave proof to in many ex-
periments). Mature leaves were damaged more than
younger ones.
Finally, this sulfurous odor was so strong in the
region of Groningen and in the same province, called
Olde–Ampt, that brass pillars which were fastened at
the outer doors of houses were tinged with a whitish
color”.12
Dr. Brugmannus exposed leaves to a mixture of
sulfurous vapor and of watery vapor, and obtained
the same effects, which the haze showed. The vapor
of sulfur reckoned with alone did not produce them
[i.e. the same effects], although it greatly affected the
leaves.
Dr. Brugmannus also perceived a certain sulfurous
odor on 8 July in the haze, which was still present. I
have said already, that the haze was at Franeker on the
9
 , 12
 , and 20
 days.
As far as I13 know that elsewhere the noxious ef-
fects of this haze, and its sulfurous odor, were not ob-
served to the same degree as they were in the province
of Groningen, in eastern Friesland, in the sovereignty
of Drenthe, [areas] adjacent to Groningen, Friesland,
“Transysalaniae”,14 and in “Transysalania”; but yet in
Holland and in the Trajectine Tract15 strong haze was
already present before 20 June, but they where nei-
ther sulfurous nor injurious, except at Sardam [Sar-
dami] north of the Holland district, from the region of
the city Amsterdam, built on the shore of the river,
where the leaves of the broad-beans and pear-trees
were damaged. In Gelderland and Transyslania a light
sulfurous odor was perceived on the 24
 and 25
 ,
but not here. There the haze, which was present, did
not assert the noxious influxes, which we experienced
in Frisia. In general the haze seemed to be strongest
in the sovereignty of Groningen, and then in Frisia.
Moreover, in respect to the haze in other regions,
as Brugmannusn rightly observed, it is possible to
conjecture that it came to us from northern regions.
But Dr. van Olst showed the logbook16 of the com-
mander of a ship, which set out from Norway on the
19 June and put in at Groningen on 2 July. From this
it is disclosed, that the ocean17 was covered then from
the 25
 to the 30
 June by a continuous haze, which
often, especially on the 29
 and 30
 , was so dense,
that it nearly removed all view: but the sulfurous odor
was not present. Indeed the winds, which blew on the
ocean on these days, were different from those, which
we observed at Groningen or Franeker.
Now it is known, that this haze covered the whole
of Europe. It will help to gather certain things from
the observations of others, shared with me by letters,
and to add them for the sake of further illustration.
Rev. P. Cotte informed me that this haze began in
Gaul18 on 17 June, and went away on 21 July, with
rain, which was accompanied by thunder.
According to the things which Rev. Meuran com-
municated with me, first from his own observations,
then from those undertaken by Dom. du Vasquier near
the city of Neufchatel in Switzerland, the haze, be-
gan to appear there on 17 June (after a cold wind).
It appeared in the form of a vapor, now denser, now
thinner, but through the horizon everywhere equally
dispersed. The atmosphere was to such an extent ob-
scured by this vapor, that at nearly any hour of the day
one could gaze at the sun without injury. This haze
remained there not at all interrupted all the way to 8
July. From the 8
 to the 20
 it disappeared in great-
est part, and a great storm/heat was observed. The
haze appeared again on the 20
 , and lasted up until

Brass was stained by dry deposition of sulfuric compounds, implying that the atmosphere was oversaturated with respect to compounds
of sulfur. i.e., van Swinden. 
Meaning of these two terms is unclear and it is not certain what regions of the Netherlands van Swinden is referring to here. However,
Transyslania may refer to the areas where arable land was reclaimed from the sea. 
In Latin “Trajectino Tractu” = Utrecht? 
It is referred to as “diarum” in the original text. 
i.e., the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea. 
Gaul is located near the border of France and Italy.
76 JÖKULL No. 50