On the Hot springs c)f the Andes. 151 



iat a corrupt state of society, has formed an ideal felicity, is far 

 from bringing us in contact with physical perfections. Every 

 thing demonstrates, that man is sociable, and in a progressing 

 state ; but this progress is often shackled, his sociability render- 

 ed tortuous by individual egotism, and by the vitious nature of 

 our institutions. 



>- ON THE HOT SPRINGS OF THE CORDILLERAS ^F THE ANDES. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Sciences of France held on 

 the 18th March 1833, M. Boussingault read a memoir on the tem- 

 perature of the hot springs of the Cordilleras of the Andes. The 

 theory originally proposed by Laplace to account for the heat 

 of those springs, and which is grounded on the supposed exist- 

 ence of a high temperature in the interior of the earth, seems 

 confirmed by a multitude of phenomena presented at various 

 points of the Cordilleras. Thus, on the coast chain of Vene- 

 zuela, the temperature of the hot springs diminishes as the ab- 

 solute height increases. For instance, the hot spring of Las 

 Trincheras, near Puerto Cabello, and which is situated nearly 

 at the level of the sea, has a temperature of 97° cent. ; that of 

 Mariara, at a height of 4?76 metres, has only a temperature of 

 64° cent. ; and that of Onato, which has an elevation of 702 

 metres, has only a temperature of 44°.5 cent. 



But in the trachytic formation, especially in the vicinity of 

 volcanoes, this regular decrease in the temperature of hot springs 

 does not present itself ; and it seems that in such cases the local 

 cause producing the volcanic action has a marked influence on 

 the temperature of the waters. It becomes, then, extremely in- 

 teresting to determine if these hot springs have their origin near 

 the seats of volcanic action. In order to solve this question, it 

 is necessary to submit to chemical examination the hot waters 

 occurring near volcanos, particular attention being paid to the 

 nature of the gases they may contain. If these gases should 

 prove to be the same which are recognised in active craters, we 

 would obtain a strong argument for believing, that the water of 

 hot springs has been in contact with the substances occurring in 

 the sources of volcanic eruption. The determination of the sa- 

 line substances contained in mineral waters would thus gain a 



