196 COSMOS. 



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 45 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 auctorefer- 

 vens hfpc aqua tantum ebulliat ? " Patricius set forth his 

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

 of Etna arid Vesuvius, and communicates more and more 

 heat to the springs, in proportion as they have a deeper 

 origin." With the learned Bishop, Plato's Pyriphlegethon 

 was the hell of sinners ; and a,s though he desired at the 



45 With regard to this passage, discovered by Bureau de la Malle, 

 see Cosmos, vol. i, pp, 220, 221. " Est autem," says Saint Patricius, 

 " et supra firmamentum cteli, et subter terrain ignis atque aqua ; 

 et quce supra terram est aqua, coacta in unum, appellationem ma- 

 rium : quse vero infra, abyssorum suscepit ; ex qiiibus ad generis 

 human! usus in terram velut siphones quidam emittuntur et scatu- 

 riunt. Ex iisdem quoque et thermae ex.sistunt : quarum quge ab igne 

 absunt longius, provida boni Dei erga nos mente, fnyidiores ; quce 

 vero propius admodum, ferventes fluunt. In quibusdam etiam locis et 

 tepidse aqua? reperiuntur, pro ut majore ab igue intervallo sunt dis- 

 junctac." So run the words in the collection : Acta Primorum Mar- 

 tyrum, opera et studio T/teodorici Ruinart, ed. 2, Amstelaedami, 1713 fol. 

 p. 555. According to another report (A. S. Mazochii, in veins marmo- 

 reuin sanctce Neapolitans Ecclesice Kalendarium commentaries, vol. ii, 

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

 theory of telluric heat before the proconsul Julius, but at the conclu- 

 sion of his speech the cold hell is more distinctly indicated : - " Nam 

 quse longius ab igne subterraneo absunt, Dei optimi providentia frigi- 

 diores erumpunt. At quD3 propiores igni sunt, ab eo fervefactse, into- 

 lerabili calore procditae promuntur foras. Sunt et alicubi tepidse, 

 quippe non parum sed longiuscule ab eo igne remotre. Atque ille in- 

 fernus ignis impiarum est animarum carnin'cina ; non secus ac subter- 

 raneus frigidissirnus gurges, in glaciei glebas concretus, qui Tartarus 

 nuncupatur." The Arabic name, Hamm&m-el-Enf, signifies nose-baths, 

 and is, as Temple has already remarked, derived from the form of a 

 neighbouring promontory, and not from a favourable action exerted by 

 this thermal water upon diseases of the nose. The Arabic nam- has 

 been variously altered by reporters: Haminam 1'Enf or Lif, Eruma- 

 melif (Peyssonel), la Mamelif (Desfontaines). See Cumprecht, Die Mine' 

 ralqudlen auf dem FestlamJe von Africa (1851), s. 140 144. 



