an Intermitting Brine Spring near Kissingen, 321 



slowly opened for itself new channels, connected with its arti- 

 ficial outlet. At a depth of little more than 100 feet, the 

 temperature was already 15° R. = QS^"" F., and diminished af- 

 terwards to 14' (6*3^° F.), and finally increased to 15°, when 

 the work was concluded, at which nearly it has since remained. 

 But from the earlier history of the work, I trace a yet more 

 marked proof of the independence of the temperature and the 

 depth of the bore. In the little work of Pickel, professor of 

 Chemistry at Wijrtzburg, I find that the Reiche Brunnen (see 

 page 5, but which the writer does not seem very clearly to dis- 

 criminate from the new or Runde Brunnen) yielded a copious 

 flow of brine coming from a depth of only 5Q feet, which in 

 1782 had a temperature of 16^° R. (69° F.) and contained 

 3J per cent, of salt, but which in 1800 had fallen to 10^ 

 (544° F.) with Ij per cent.* We thus see that the tempera- 

 ture of water, obtained comparatively near the surface, was 

 higher than that at the depth of 323 feet in the new shaft. 

 This shews the necessity of discriminating the depth from which 

 water flows, and the depth of the well with which it happens to 

 be connected,-|- a point too often overlooked in estimating the 

 progression of temperature as we descend. 



In addition to its other peculiarities, the brine spring of 

 Kissingen is to be considered as a true hot spring, as much so 

 as if it had any higher temperature, the warmth not depending 

 on the contingent circumstance of its finding its exit by an 

 artesian well. Considered in this point of view, we naturally 

 look for the cause of its thermality to the neighbourhood of 

 the volcanic focus of the Rhon, and the evidence formerly 

 alluded to, of the valley of the Saal being a great fissure ; 

 yet, after all, we find sufficient anomalies to puzzle us. 

 Why no thermal springs are found in the whole district of 

 the Rhon besides, J why the other springs which appear so 

 nearly connected with this one, as to discharge the same 

 gas, and to partake of its character of periodicity, have so 



♦ Pickel Geschichte des Salz-und Luft-Brunnens, p. 6. 

 t Bisclioff, Warmelelire, Leipzig, 1837, p. 252. 

 X Kastner. 



