The primitive cause of subterranean heat is, as in all planets, the process of formation itself, i. e. the forming of the aggregating mass from a cosmical gaseous fluid. Power and influence of the radiation of heat from numerous open fissures and unfilled veins in the ancient world. Climate (or atmospheric temperature) at that period very independent of the geographical latitude, or of the position of the planet in respect to the central body, the sun. Organic forms of the present tropical world buried in the icy regions of the north [238]-[241]
Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. [243] to p. [248].
Barometric measurements of Vesuvius. Comparison of the height of different points of the crater of Vesuvius [243]-[247]
Increase of temperature with depth, 1° Reaumur for every 113 Parisian feet, or 1° of Fahrenheit for every 53·5 English feet. Temperature of the Artesian well at Oeynhausen’s Bad (New Salzwerk, near Minden), the greatest depth yet reached below the level of the sea. The hot springs near Carthage led Patricius, Bishop of Pertusa, in the 3rd century, to form just conjectures respecting the cause of the increase of temperature in the interior of the earth [248]
The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius—p. [249] to p. [257].
Note to “The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius”—p. [259] to p. [263].
The Rhodian Genius, the development of a physiological idea in a mythical garb. Difference of views respecting the hypothesis of peculiar vital forces. [259], [260]
The difficulty of satisfactorily reducing the vital phenomena of organisation to physical and chemical laws, is principally founded on the complication of the phenomena, and on the multiplicity of simultaneously acting forces, as well as the varying conditions of the activity of those forces. Definition of the expressions “animate” and “inanimate” substances. Criteria derived from the composition of the elements after a substance has been separated into parts by external agency are the simple enunciation of facts. [260]-[263]
The Plateau of Caxamarca, the ancient residence of the Inca Atahuallpa, and the first view of the Pacific from the crest of the Andes—p. [265] to p. [302].
Quina-producing forests in the valleys of Loxa. First use of the fever-bark in Europe; the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the Viceroy [267]-[269]