i8o Mayow 



Whether the air contained in the said bladder can 

 pass into the mass of the blood and supply fishes wiih 

 material for respiration I shall not definitely say, 

 although that such is the case seems to be indicated 

 by the fact that fishes can live a little longer than 

 other animals when deprived of air — unless indeed 

 this should be accounted for by the circumstance that 

 fishes, owing to the very languid fermentation of their 

 blood, consume a comparatively small quantity of air, 

 so that, unlike most animnls, they do not need to 

 have a perpetual supply of air. 



And now, since the air is intermingled so largely 

 with rain-water, it is probable that a saline-sulphureous 

 mineral effervesces when wetted with rain-water 

 because the aerial partiples, which are conducted by 

 the aqueous panicles, enter deep into a mineral of 

 that nature and effervesce with its saline-sulphureous 

 part. For I have already endeavoured to show that 

 air is possessed of a highly fermentative nature, and 

 that nearly all heat results from the effervescence of 

 something aerial with saline-sulphureous particles. 

 In fact, a saline-sulphureous mineral of this sort 

 behaves not very differently from the mass of the 

 blood, the heat of which arises from this, that the 

 aerial particles conveyed to it by respiration effervesce 

 conspicuously with its saline-sulphureous particles, as 

 has been elsewhere pointed out more fully. 



With respect to the heat of the thermal waters, I 

 think it should be held that the aerial panicles which 

 descend with rain-water into the depths of the earth 

 and meet there with the saline-sulphureous mineral, 

 excite in it a very intense effervescence and heat ; and 

 that springs of water, flowing from the mineral thus 

 effervescing, constitute the thermal springs. 



Further, it may well be supposed that the earth is 



