1831.] 
Observations on Overflowing Wells, Spc. 
9 
II . — Observations on the Cause of the Spouting of Overflowing Wells 
or Artesian Fountains. 
According to some philosophers, the theory of the spouting waters of Artesian 
springs has been referred, sometimes to that of jets d'eau , and sometimes to that 
of syphons ; a bored well being, as they say, only the second branch of a large 
syphon, of which the first branch is the subterranean course, between impermeable 
strata, followed by the compressed waters coming from a higher country than that 
in which the bored well has been formed. 
According to others, such a well can only be considered as a tube, which 
shows the pressure of water upon an earthy or stony stratum, at which the bored 
well terminates. 
Mr. Dickson, of New Brunswick, after showing that, by means of bored wells, 
water may be procured in any place whatever, and that it will rise to the surface of 
the earth, independently of all gravitating pressure, says, that masses of water, 
precipitated into the abysses of the interior of the earth, are thrown out to its sur- 
face by an innate expansive force, through the action of the central fire ; and again 
admits, as a second cause for the ascent of water, the effect of capillarity, — forget- 
ting that, if this action could bring subterranean waters to the surface, it yet 
could not make them spring beyond it. 
According to M. Azais, the springing of the water of bored wells seems to be 
unamenable to any common law, and can only be accounted for by the universal 
principle of expansion : “ For,” says he, “ every body which contains in its central 
paits an expansive focus, surrounded by envelopes of greater or less thickness or con- 
densation, is a body in a state of resilience, that is, in a state of continued effort 
against the resistance of these envelopes. It incessantly labours to drive them 
outwards, to break and dissolve them ; and not being able to do this, it at least 
exercises its expansive action upon the internal substances, agitates them, divides 
them, attenuates them, and projects them as much as it is possible for it through 
the pores of the external envelopes. This action of resilience and transpiration °is 
in nature the first and essential vital action .” After distinguishing three kinds of 
transpiration, viz. 1st. the vital transpiration, which emanates from the central re-i- 
ons of our planet, and projects outwards by radiation the subtile fluids, such °as 
caloric, the magnetic fluid, electricity, &c. ; ‘Idly, the middle transpiration, which 
emanates from the intermediate regions, and projects, under a vague and semi- 
impetuous form, the various gases of which the mass of the atmosphere is compo- 
sed ; and, 3 dly, the weak or ijidolent transpiration , which emanates from the layers 
nearest the envelope, a soft transudation like sweat, and under an aqueous form, M- 
Azais says, that, like the blood, which, through the impulsion of the central focus, 
continually making an effort to exhale, by supplying our habitual transpiration, 
an which springs out the moment the lancet has burst the envelope which retained 
it, the central water springs out under the borer in obedience to the universal prin- 
ciple of expansion 1 . 
On this subject, M. Azais, after observing that in the globe, taken as a whole, 
each of the thiee modes of transpiration always preserving the same measure, there 
always emanate from it the same quantities of subtile fluid, gases and water ; whence 
it follows, that, wherever the aqueous transpiration is precipitated, by the aid of a 
boied well or a bleeding, a local intensity is given to it, by which there is drawn 
oil a more or less extensive mass of the aqueous transpiration, which in ordinary cases, 
makes its way slowly, with difficulty, and under a very divided form by the pores 
