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 haic 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 Bureau de la Malle, 

 see Cos7)ios, vol. i., p. 223, 224. "Est autem," says Saint Patricius, 

 " et supra firmamentum cash, et suhter terram ignis atque aqua ; et 

 quae supra terram est aqua, coacta in unum, appellationcm marium: 

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

 iisus in terram velut siphones quidam emittuntur et scaturiunt. Ex 

 iisdera quoque et thermae exsistunt : quarum quae ab igne absunt 

 longius, provida boni Dei erga nos mente, frigidiores ; quae vero/»ro- 

 plus admodum,7%ruewies fluunt. In quibusdam etiam locis et tepidoe 

 aquse reperiuntur, pro ut majore ab igne intervallo sunt disjunctae." 

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

 et studio Theodorici Ruinart, ed. 2, Amstelaedami, 1713 fol., p. 655. 

 According to another report (A. S. Mazochii, in vctus murmoreum 

 sanctce. NeapoUtance Ecclesice Kalendarium commentarhis, vol. ii., Neap. 

 ] 744, 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 quce propiores igni sunt, ab eo fervefactae, intolerabili 

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

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

 impiarum est animarum carnificina ; non secus ac subterraneus frigi- 

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

 The Ai-abic name, Hammdm-el-Evf, 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 

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

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

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

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



