M. Stifft OJi the Origin irf Mineral Springs. 291 



is scarcely necessary to demonstrate the insufficiency of these 

 hypotheses, they shew in a very striking manner that very early 

 these two classes of phenomena were considered as deducible 

 from one common origin, or at least stood to each other in the 

 relation of cause and effect. Others thought, that the state of 

 igneous liquidity, although no longer visible in the consolidated 

 cruBt of our globe, might still exist in its interior, and give 

 rise to both the appearances in question. A third class consi- 

 dered their origin as more explicable upon the supposition of 

 immense strata of sulphur of bitumen, or of the metallic sulphu- 

 rets existing in the earth's interior. And a fourth thought it 

 most reasonable to suppose, that in the subterranean laboratories 

 were carried on immense galvano-electrical processes, compre- 

 hending within their compass whole mountain chains. In sup- 

 port of all these hypotheses many facts have been brought for* 

 ward. Every one, however, is exposed to numerous contradic- 

 tions, and there are many facts which can be explained upon 

 none of them. Whatever may be the value of these specula- 

 tions, or the merit of their proposers, as men who have ma^ 

 terially advanced the domain of science, it appears to me that 

 none of them are founded upon any thing like certainty with 

 respect to the primary/ cause. I lay it for the present aside 

 altogether, although it appears to me very probable that at a 

 great depth a focus must be supposed to exist, in which, as a 

 primary cause, are elaborated, the natural products which ap- 

 pear to us in the form of volcanoes and mineral springs. I 

 therefore do not consider volcanic rocks and mineral waters as 

 standing to one another in the relation of cause and effect ; but 

 as the products of one and the same cause, of the great vol- 

 canic focus existing in the interior of the globe. So long as 

 the gaseous exhalations of this focus are retained by the great 

 mass of superincumbent rock, the intensity of their pressure 

 must gradually increase, till at last they force themselves out by 

 the elevation and tearing of the strata, and the eruption of gas. 

 Hence the different lavas and volcanic rocks. But should a free 

 exit be permitted to these gases through fissures and canals 

 already existing, volcanic eruptions could no longer take place, 

 while these products would find a continued and peaceful issue 

 in the form of mineral springs ; the meteoric waters which sinl^ 



u 2 



