Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 8 -- Transmuational and Biologic Engines
In Historia Ventorum (1622), Francis Bacon (1561-
1626) wrote that air emitted from the earth's
interior transformed itself into rain.
Winds do contract themselves into rain,... either
being burthened by the burthen itself, when the
vapors are copious, or by the contrary motions
of winds, so they be calm and mild; or by the
opposition of mountains and promontories which
stop the violence of the winds, and by little and
little turn themselves against themselves; or by
extreme colds, whereby they are condensed
and thickened.
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Pierre Cureau de la Chambre (1631-1693),
on the other hand, made the distinction
between constituent and state. From
Discours sur les Causes du Desbordement
du Nil (1666),
When nitre is heated by the heat of the
sun, it ferments and mingling with the
water, troubles it, swells it, and makes it
pass beyond its banks; after the same
manner as the spirits in new wine render
it troubled and make it boil in vessel.
The observation that the nitre (saltpeter) is mingled in the water -- as opposed to being derived
from it -- signals the end of transmutation as hydrologic explanation, however. A quasi-chemical
basis for flooding speaks to the times, if not the fact, but it at least doesn't involve created water.
As more-pragmatic science replaced Plato's natural philosophy, transmutational underground
rivers fell from serious consideration.
Much more attractive were models based on biology, ill-understood as it was, but in the mind of
the Church, an implementation of God's will.
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