344 
This mineral consists of Orthoclase and Quartz. Orthoclase 
contains from seven to 15 per cent. of Potash and two to three per 
cent. of Soda, and as these Alkaline minerals do not exist in any 
of the aqueous rocks through which the water flows, accessible, 
and in such abundance as we find them in our springs, it is 
therefore clear that the mineral properties of the water declare 
their source. 
The paper was accompanied by a number of plans and sections, 
illustrative of the local geological evidence of the truth of the 
theory. 
The President, in thanking Mr. Norton Tompkins for his 
communication, which he regretted could not be read in its 
entirety owing to its considerably exceeding the usual time 
allotted to papers read before the Field Club, called on any 
Members present who studied geology and analytical chemistry 
more than he did, to offer any remarks they thought fit on the 
subject of the Bath waters. Mr. Story-Maskelyne rose to remind 
the Members of an excellent paper on the “ Thermal Springs of 
Bath and elsewhere,” read by the late Mr. R. E. Crickitt in 1867, 
and published in the first number of the Club’s Proceedings, and 
stated that Mr Tompkins gave quite a different theory for the 
heat of the water than that of Mr. Crickitt. He had a theory of 
his own as regarded the five great outbursts of volcanic energy, 
which had mainly brought the globe into its present conformation, 
and considered they were synchronous with the alterations of the 
poles of the earth, and a study of the Pyramids, and their present 
divergence from the true points of the compass explains consider- 
ably the way the axis of the earth’s rotation has changed from the 
early date they were erected. 
The Rev. H. H. Winwood in thanking Mr. Tompkins for the 
indefatigable industry and investigation he had expended on the 
subject of the Bath waters, could not deny his theory was 
excellent, but regretted that the facts on which it was founded 
were quite the contrary. The complicated system of faults and 
