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For the same reason earthquakes usually take place in spring and autumn
and in times of wet and of drought-because these are the windiest seasons.
Summer with its heat and winter with its frost cause calm: winter is too cold,
summer too dry for winds to form. In time of drought the air is full of wind;
drought is just the predominance of the dry over the moist evaporation.
Again, excessive rain causes more of the evaporation to form in the earth.
Then this secretion is shut up in a narrow compass and forced into a smaller
space by the water that fills the cavities. Thus a great wind is compressed into
a smaller space and so gets the upper hand, and then breaks out and beats
against the earth and shakes it violently.
We must suppose the action of the wind in the earth to be analogous to the
tremors and throbbings caused in us by the force of the wind contained in our
bodies. Thus some earthquakes are a sort of tremor, others a sort of throbbing.
Again, we must think of an earthquake as something like the tremor that often
runs through the body after passing water as the wind returns inwards from
without in one volume.
The force wind can have may be gathered not only from what happens in
the air (where one might suppose that it owed its power to produce such
effects to its volume), but also from what is observed in animal bodies.
Tetanus and spasms are motions of wind, and their force is such that the
united efforts of many men do not succeed in overcoming the movements of
the patients. We must suppose, then (to compare great things with small), that
what happens in the earth is just like that. Our theory has been verified by
actual observation in many places. It has been known to happen that an
earthquake has continued until the wind that caused it burst through the earth
into the air and appeared visibly like a hurricane. This happened lately near
Heracleia in Pontus and some time past at the island Hiera, one of the group
called the Aeolian islands. Here a portion of the earth swelled up and a lump
like a mound rose with a noise: finally it burst, and a great wind came out of it
and threw up live cinders and ashes which buried the neighbouring town of
Lipara and reached some of the towns in Italy. The spot where this eruption
occurred is still to be seen.
Indeed, this must be recognized as the cause of the fire that is generated in
the earth: the air is first broken up in small particles and then the wind is
beaten about and so catches fire.
A phenomenon in these islands affords further evidence of the fact that
winds move below the surface of the earth. When a south wind is going to
blow there is a premonitory indication: a sound is heard in the places from
which the eruptions issue. This is because the sea is being pushed on from a
distance and its advance thrusts back into the earth the wind that was issuing
754
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156