Sept. 7, 1888.J 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



219 



is most heterogeneous. To our intestines, there corres- 

 pond subterranean canals and abysses of water (hydro- 

 phylacid), which feed the springs, and through them com- 

 municate with all the seas. A central fire radiates 

 through innumerable veins (pyrophylacia), which vivify 

 and warm the globe, feeding the volcanoes and heating 

 the hot springs. In our body, the vital spirits (sanguis 

 spirituosus) acts in a similar manner. How is the globe 

 to respire without the aerophylacia, vast hollow reser- 

 voirs corresponding to the lungs and filled with air ? 

 The air of the aerophylacia escapes through branching 



animals is still accepted by certain speculators. In a 

 work published six years ago, and bearing the modest 

 title, " The Perfect Way," we are told that the planets 

 are persons, and even possess memory. Father Kircher 

 makes a much more frugal use of his imagination. 



We must never forget that our positive acquaintance 

 with the earth's interior amounts to nothing. We have 

 not penetrated to the depth of five miles, which is as if 

 we had explored a body 133 feet in thickness to the 

 depth ot one inch ! Surely such knowledge is too liter- 

 ally superficial. 



S«craa Ideate ~V Kgrf3h«#' - 5 



-*'<-' f^p r Caiutltt lirJra^i^as yuil^rmMOS ^-^J^n^^ - *? 



Ideal Section of the Earth (after Kircher). 



conduits, and serves firstly to maintain the combustion of 

 the igneous masses which would otherwise be extin- 

 guished ; but besides, a,certain number of pipes vent 

 into superficial caverns, thus occasioning the winds. 

 We must not forget that the baseless matter here pro- 

 pounded is mixed with sound, accurate nations which 

 our modern geologists do not reject. Father Kircher 

 was not merely a traveller and a compiler ; he had 

 travelled and observed, and had made many experi- 

 -ments. 



An analogy between the heavenly bodies and men or 



ON THE GEOLOGY OF BATH AND 

 THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



(Continued from p. \<j%-) 

 We now pass to the Secondary or Mezozoic rocks, 

 which rest on the upturned edges of the Palaeozoic strata, 

 or, as it should be more properly expressed, rest uncon- 

 formably. The explanation of this is that at the close of 

 the Carboniferous Period some of the strata which had 

 formed was raised above sea-level,, and became land. 

 When this was accomplished, the land was subjected to 



