188 cosmos. 



quest, in the very year before his death, with theoretical in- 

 vestigations upon the question, how in the elevation of 

 mountains and alterations in the surface of the earth, the 

 isothermal surfaces are brought into equilibrium with the 

 new form of the soil. The lateral radiation from strata 

 which lie in the same level, but are differently covered, 

 plays in this case a more important part than the direction 

 (inclination) of the cleavage planes of the rock, in cases 

 where stratification is observable. 



I have already elsewhere mentioned* how the hot springs 

 in the environs of ancient Carthage, probably the thermal 

 springs of Pertusa [aquce calidce of Hammam-el-Enf), led 

 Bishop Patricius, the martyr, to the correct view of the 

 cause of the higher or lower temperature of the bubbling 

 waters. When the Proconsul Julius tried to confuse the 

 accused bishop by the mocking question, " Quo auctore fer- 

 vens hcec aqua tantum ebulliatf Patricius set forth his the- 

 ory of the central heat, " which causes the fiery eruptions of 

 JEtna and Vesuvius, and communicates more and more heat 



* With regard to this passage, discovered by Dureau de la Malle, 

 see Cosmos, vol. i., p. 223, 224. "Est autem," says Saint Patricius, 

 "et supra firmameutuni cadi, et subter terrain ignis atque aqua; et 

 qua supra terrain est aqua, coacta in unum, appellationem marium : 

 quae vero infra, abyssorum suscepit; ex quibus ad generis humani 

 usus in terrain velut sipbones quidam emittuntur et scaturiunt. Ex 

 iisdera quoque et thermae exsistunt : quarum quae ab igne absunt 

 longius, provida boni Dei erga nos mente, frigidiores ; qua vero jwo- 

 pius SL&mo&wm, ferventes fluunt. In quibusdam etiam locis et tepidae 

 aquai reperiuntur, pro ut niajore ab igne intervallo sunt disjunctae." 

 So run the -words in the collection : Acta Primorum Martyrum, opera 

 et studio Theodoriri Ruinart, ed. 2, Amstekedami, 1713 fob, p. 555. 

 According to another report (A. S. Mazochii, in veins marmoreum 

 sanctoz Neapolitans Ecclesiaz Kalendarium commentarius, vol. ii., Neap. 

 1744, 4to, p. 385), Saint Patricius developed nearly the same theory 

 of telluric heat before the Proconsul Julius ; but at the conclusion of 

 his speech the cold hell is more distinctly indicated : " Nam quae lon- 

 gius ab igne subterraneo absunt, Dei optimi providentia frigidiores 

 erumpunt. At quae propiores igni sunt, ab eo fervefactae, intolerabili 

 calore praeditae promuntur foras. Sunt et alicubi tepidae, quippe non 

 parum sed longiuscule ab eo igne remotse. Atque ille infernus ignis 

 impiarum est animarum carnificina ; non secus ac subterraneus frigi- 

 dissimus gurges, in glaciei glebas concretus, qui Tartarus nuncupatur." 

 The Arabic name, Hammam-el-Enf, signifies nose-baths, and is, as Tem- 

 ple has already remarked, derived from the form of a neighboring 

 promontory, and not from a favorable action exerted by this thermal 

 water upon diseases of the nose. The Arabic name has been various- 

 ly altered by reporters : Hammam l'Enf or Lif, Emmamelif (Peys- 

 sonel), la Mamelif (Desfontaines). See Gumprecht, Die Mineralquel- 

 len aufdem Fcstlande von Africa (1851), s. 140-144. 



